This Ambrosia Salad recipe is an old family favorite. Sweet and refreshing, this side dish (or dessert) needs just a handful of ingredients.
What is Ambrosia Salad?
Ambrosia means ‘food of the gods’. This version is our family favorite. While it’s called “salad,” ambrosia salad is more dessert-like and is often served as a side dish for Christmas, Easter dinner, or Thanksgiving. This version has pineapple, coconut, mandarin oranges, and mini marshmallows in a creamy base.
Holly’s Recipe Highlights
- Skill level: So easy, also called 5 cup salad, it needs just five ingredients and 5 minutes of prep.
- Swaps: Swap sour cream for Greek yogurt or change up the fruit to your liking.
- Serving suggestions: It’s potluck perfect since it’s best made ahead of time.
Ingredient Tips for Ambrosia Salad
- Yogurt/Sour Cream – Our family has always used sour cream which is sweetened by the marshmallows. You can replace it with plain or vanilla Greek yogurt or ½ with whipped topping (such as Cool Whip).
- Marshmallows – Use miniature marshmallows (fruit-flavored or plain). They add sweetness to the base, and the texture will soften as they sit.
- Fruit – I use coconut shreds, canned mandarin oranges, and pineapple chunks, as my grandma always made it.
Variations
While this recipe is delicious exactly as written, you can change it up to your liking.
- Chopped maraschino cherries
- Chopped nuts like walnuts or pecans for crunch
- Fresh bananas, grapes, kiwi, or strawberries.
- Swap pineapple for peaches
Tips for Ambrosia Salad
- Drain the canned fruit well so the dish isn’t watery.
- Gently fold in the mandarin oranges last, as they can be fragile and break apart.
- Be sure to make this salad ahead of time to blend the flavors and soften the marshmallows.
More Dessert Salads
Did your family love this Ambrosia Salad? Be sure to leave a rating and a comment below!
Easy Ambrosia Salad
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup sour cream or plain or vanilla yogurt
- 1 cup miniature marshmallows fruit flavored or white
- 1 cup sweetened coconut flakes
- 1 cup pineapple tidbits well drained
- 1 cup mandarin oranges well drained
Instructions
- In a large bowl, add sour cream, marshmallows, coconut, and pineapple tidbits. Stir until combined.
- Gently fold in mandarin oranges.
- Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. Serve chilled.
Video
Notes
- Make ahead to allow the flavors to blend and to soften the marshmallows.
- Be sure to drain all fruit well to prevent the dish from being watery.
- Mandarin oranges are fragile and break easily, so gently fold them in last
- Greek, plain, or vanilla yogurt can serve as the base. I prefer sour cream which is sweetened by the coconut and marshmallows.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Dessert, Salad, Side Dish
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I love to make this at Easter. It goes pairs so well with salty ham. The only substitution I make is fruit cocktail for pineapple.
I always add chopped pecans to mine. SUPER GOOD. You can adjust how many you use or the type of nut you use.
Tastes just like my grandma used to make back in the homeland. Hardest part of the recipe is finding Halal marshmallows.
I am so glad you enjoyed it.
absolutely delicious and a favorite of my family.
True ambrosia does not have whipped cream yogurt, Cool Whip none of that no marshmallows it is citrus preferably orange without any membrane fresh grated coconut, maraschino cherries, totally for aesthetics. It is only with the getting refrigerators and processed milk that people began adding whipped cream. It’s a grapefruit salad, but it’s not ambrosia.
I am sharing my family’s version of Ambrosia salad.
love it.
This is my grandchildren’s absolute favorite….so easy and they gobble it up! I have used your recipe many times!
A delightfully easy and mouth watering side or desert for any occasion.
If you can open a can, strain, mix ingredients and rfrigerate a few hours or overnight:
Add this to your repertoire of “Go-to’s”!
Loved this recipe, it sis not come out watery. Best one ever!!
yummy
My family loves this salad! It’s always on the table for Easter. The coloured marshmallows make it festive!
Hello how much cream cheese do you use for the salad?
Hi Jo Ann, this recipe uses sour cream for the creamy base, not cream cheese.
My family’s Ambrosia salad is very similar, but instead of sour cream or Greek yogurt we use full-fat Cool Whip. Makes it very fluffy. The base mixture ratio is: 1 part cottage cheese; 2 parts Cool Whip and 2 parts white marshmallows. I personally add a teaspoon or two of cherry-flavored powdered gelatin (Jello), to give it even more delicious flavor and a beautiful pink color. It dissolves well in the base. We use canned crushed pineapple really, really well drained, basically pressing all the excess liquid through a wire strainer, so it doesn’t add liquid to the salad, and of course the Mandarine oranges.
Fantastic! I did sour cream with frozen Cool Whip. I also added marachino cherries which turned everything pink.
Can’t wait to try this!
This is the same Ambrosia I grew up eating and have made many times myself. Just a heads up – always use the pastel colored marshmallows if you can. The flavor is just not quite the same with the plain white. Good without the coconut if you have non-coconut fans. Also, fantastic with sliced bananas added right before serving, although less nice if you have leftovers since the bananas don’t hold up well. I’ve never understood the cool whip versions – this is more than sweet enough with sour cream and a very different flavor. Really not a fan of cool whip though, so there’s that. I made this while living in Germany to a neighborhood potluck, and it confused my German neighbors because they emphatically thought it was a dessert, not a salad. So really, don’t be afraid of the sour cream!
I made this and added maraschino cherries( just before serving) and I also added 1/2 cup Cool Whip topping. It was delicious , this was our Easter dessert! In addition I also made your crock pot ham, and made the glaze in the recipe, can you say second helpings! Also your scalloped potatoes were a big hit with all the family , everyone went back for more. Thank you Holly for making easy to follow recipes that also taste delicious!!!
Thank you for the kind words Carol, I am so happy to hear all of the Easter recipes were a hit!
Interesting with the yogurt or sour cream.
Our Family always used “Cool Whip” BUT we also always added dry instant pudding (pistachio was always the favorite) to the mix and let that sit in fridge over night. I think also a cousin used to added dry jell-o to the mix for flavor and color.
The pistachio pudding and cool whip is how we make our Watergate salad! Also delicious; there are so many variations!
I love this! I was randomly craving this out of nowhere and I made it using half of the amount of ingredients since it was just for me. I couldn’t remember how my Nana made it (she passed away a couple months ago) so I used half sour cream and half homemade whipped cream since I had some heavy whipping cream left in the fridge. I probably added more coconut than most people would like but that’s my favorite part! Drained both cans of fruit and it was the perfect consistency. Took a “chef bite” before putting it in the fridge and it was already amazing! Thank you so much for this recipe, gave me some nostalgia and I’m sure my Nana would be proud!
Thank you so much for sharing Carrie! I am so glad you enjoyed this recipe and am so happy to hear you felt it honored your Nana.
Thank you so much for replying back! I’m sure my Nana was smiling down from Heaven! I patiently waited and let it sit overnight in the fridge and maaaann, oh man was it delicious!! My coconut hating boyfriend sure missed out! I love your recipes and I have tried several so far since I stumbled across this site! Keep up the great work!