Cranberry Salad is the perfect side for any turkey dinner! A delicious mixture of fresh homemade cranberry sauce combined with pecans, coconut, marshmallows and pineapple.
This salad reminds me of my favorite Millionaire Pie recipe with a deliciously tart cranberry twist!
Cranberry Salad
Cranberry salad is called a salad but it’s not really salad at all (kind of like Watergate Salad or Strawberry Banana Salad). It’s almost more like a dessert salad but we always serve it on the side of our turkey dinner, like Ambrosia Salad.
Regardless what you call it, my family loves this easy cranberry salad! Fresh tart of cranberries, juicy pineapple, pecans for crunch all in a sweet creamy base!
How to Make Cranberry Salad
This cranberry salad recipe starts with an easy homemade cranberry sauce. The cranberry sauce in this recipe uses a bit less sugar so it’s more tart which balances the sweetness of the rest of the ingredients. You can certainly use a store bought whole berry cranberry sauce in place of the homemade version but this does change the recipe slightly since the store bought sauce is sweeter. Creating the homemade sauce is so easy, just a 3 items in a pot and let it boil and cool. Don’t worry too much if your cranberry sauce seems a little runny, it thickens as it cools.
- Make cranberry sauce and cool
- Combine all ingredients
- Refrigerate at least 4 hours
So easy right? This cranberry salad is going to become a new favorite in your house too; a little sweet, a little tart and a lot delicious!
In this recipe I don’t add all of the cranberry sauce to the mixture because I’d like to keep the consistency a bit thicker. You can certainly add all of it if you’d like but the salad won’t be quite as thick.
The little leftover cranberry mixture can be used to drizzle on anything sweet from Vanilla Bundt Cake to ice cream or even spread over Banana Bread! Remember it’s a bit more tart than a traditional cranberry sauce so it goes well with something sweet!
If you don’t have pecans on hand, walnuts are another great option.
This cranberry salad can be (and actually should be) made ahead of time. I try to make it at least 4 hours ahead but the day before is perfect too!
More Cranberry Dishes You’ll Love
- Cranberry Waldorf Salad
- Sour Cream Cranberry Bars
- Cranberry Trifle Recipe
- Cranberry Walnut Bread
- Cranberry Feta Pinwheels
- Creamy Cranberry Salad
Ingredients
- 2 cups sour cream (or plain greek yogurt)
- 2 cups pineapple tidbits well drained
- 2 cups miniature marshmallows
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 2 cups coconut flakes
Cranberry Sauce
- 3 cups fresh cranberries
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup water
- 1 cinnamon stick
Instructions
- Combine cranberries, sugar, water and cinnamon stick in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and let simmer 10 minutes. Cool completely (sauce will thicken upon cooling).
- Add 1 ½ cups cooled cranberry mixture from step 1 with remaining ingredients and stir well.
- Let sit 4 hours or overnight.
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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REPIN this Fantastic Side Dish
Made this a few weeks ago and it was delicious! Making again today for weekend company.
So glad you enjoyed it Luann!
This looks good, except for the fact that I’m not a huge fan of pecans. Just wondering if anyone has tried using a different nut variety, i.e., almonds or filberts?
I think it is good with pecans too!
Any good suggestions for dairy free version for replacement for sour cream or yogurt?
I haven’t tried this with a dairy free substitute, hopefully another reader has a suggestion.
I’m making this for Thanksgiving, easy instructions but I guess some people can’t read and comprehend.
You must want to say….. replace sugar with ARSNIC! After awhile….. Happy Holidays!
Your directions are easy to understand! As to leftover cranberry sauce, put it in a dish on the table and see what people will do. We are not coconut lovers but I’ve added chopped apple to simmering cranberries many times with good luck so we are going that way. Use the cinnamon stick, all it does is give a touch of flavor where you might ruin the dish by adding too much of it if it’s ground. Someone asked about cream cheese. My experience has been that it clumps into dots all through the salad unless it’s melted and whipped into the salad, which then just breaks the cranberries up. Hope this helps…btw, I’ve been around a long time…have 12 grandchildren and1 great grandchild. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!
Thank you for the great ideas Sharon! Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family too!
Can the mini marshmallows be omitted from the millionaire cranberry salad?
The marshmallows add sweetness and soak up a lot of the liquid. I wouldn’t suggest leaving them out.
Looks good
can you use ground cinnamon? I have everything but that. i love cranberries and this sounds delicious.
I have only tried this with a cinnamon stick. If you do make this using ground cinnamon, I would suggest you start with a very small amount (⅛ tsp) and add more if needed. I’d love to hear how it works out for you if you do try it. Enjoy!
How many servings is this?
This makes 8 side dish servings.
I made this recipe, it is GREAT! I love it, I just wish you could include the nutritional values for those of us that are counting calories. :)
I’m so glad you enjoyed it Karen! Please find the nutritional information under the recipe.
I always read reviews before I make a recipe. You my friend are a saint! I applaud your patience. OMG… Some of the questions asked made me comment out loud!
LOL! Thank you Sandy. :) Enjoy the recipe!
YES. What is so difficult about this recipe?? It is so simple! I got a good laugh out of the comments but the writer has amazing patience!
I think it would be less confusing if you said mix the cooled cranberry mixture with remaining ingredients and refrigerate. People wonder what happen to the other 1.5 C of cranberries. I thought maybe part of the recipe was missing. Just a suggestion!
Thank you for the suggestion Ricki. The cranberries boil down to create a cranberry sauce and you’ll have about 1 ¾ cups sauce. You may have a little leftover.
Holly, can I substitute Cool Whip for the sour cream/yogurt? Thanks!
I have only made this recipe as written. While it would likely work it would definitely make the salad much sweeter and more dessert like.
Has anyone tried this without coconut or replaced coconut with something else?
I am doing it without the coconut and pineapple. We shall see how it turns out. Did it last year per recipe but different family.
Can you taste the skins of the cranberries in this salad?
The cranberries create a cranberry sauce so the texture before mixing it in is like a whole berry sauce. The skins don’t stand out to me in this recipe.
Of coarse she could try peeling the cranberries first.lol
Best chuckle I’ve had all day !!
Am I supposed to use sweetened coconut. ?
Or unseeetened ?
Thanks.
The coconut is sweetened.
Thanks. I am making it now. I can not wait until I get to try this!!
Enjoy Kayla! :)
5 years ago, My oldest niece made fresh homemade cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving Dinner. About an hour after dinner, we noticed one of her cousin’s neck turning red. Turns out she has allergy to fresh cranberries…..had eaten canned/store cranberry sauce previously with no problems. I hope to make this, but will have to use canned!
Can we use ground cinnamon?
I have only tried this with a cinnamon stick. If you do make this using ground cinnamon, I would suggest you start with a very small amount (⅛ tsp) and add more if needed. I’d love to hear how it works out for you if you do try it. Enjoy!
I wonder if there might be something that you could substitute for the pineapple? My daughter is allergic to it – loves it, but she can’t have it. There seem to be so many holiday recipes with pineapple in them, and I don’t know if there’s something that would taste as good as the pineapple in them. Thank you for any help!
While I have only made this as written you could maybe try canned mandarin oranges or extra cranberry sauce from step 1.