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
Millionaire Cranberry Salad
Ingredients
- 2 cups sour cream (or plain greek yogurt)
- 2 cups pineapple tidbits well drained
- 2 cups mini marshmallows
- 1 cup pecans chopped
- 2 cups flaked coconut
Cranberry Sauce
- 3 cups Fresh Cranberries
- ¾ cup 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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Can you substitute cool whip for the sour cream? Or mix it half and half? My family isn’t big on sour cream
While it would likely work, Cool whip would make this salad much sweeter. The sour cream balances out the sweetness.
I’m betting that your family won’t know the sour cream is in there unless you tell them
My mothers recipe (which dates back to 1980) has a container of cool whip added to it instead of sour cream.
Could you substitute canned cranberries? I already bought several canned but this looked like a great way to jazz them up.
As far as canned cranberries (I am thinking it’s cranberry sauce) you can certainly use it. Cranberry sauce is sweeter than the homemade sauce in this recipe so the finished dish will be a bit sweeter but it should still work.Let us know how it works out for you!
I am looking forward to trying all the recipes. They look great.
Enjoy Chris!!
This was a diaster it didn’t turn thick at all. It was like eating chunky soup. I will not be making this ever again.
So sorry to hear that Judy, we always have great success with this recipe. Did you add 1 1/2 cups of the cranberry sauce you made?
Our family makes this every year for Thanksgiving. Delicious! There was a mishap one year, and the salad wound up freezing. A bunch of us liked it even better frozen! Try it as a frozen desert topped with chocolate sauce!
Ooo, that sounds like a delicious mishap Jim!
Ho i was wondering if there is anything i can sub or double up on instead of coconut we a couple of people who are allergic and i really would like to make it
Hi Amy, While I’ve only tried the recipe as written, you can try adding some extra nuts (although I wouldn’t suggest adding an extra two cups, that would probably be way too much). Maybe some dried cranberries as well just to make up some extra volume as this recipe contains quite a bit of coconut.
My favorite cranberry salad to make for special occasions! All my friends ask to come over once I make it because they love it as much as I do! It’s easy to make and it’s so delicious.
Would love to get new recipe
Should I half the cranberries prior to boiling for the sauce?
All of the cranberries are added to the sauce.
My husband and son do NOT like cranberries. They asked me to make sure we have this again this year. LOVE this recipe, so fresh and good!
That is so great Alice! Happy to hear you all loved it.
My aunt, by marriage, made something similar. You mixed raw ground cranberries and sugar in a large bowl, add drained crushed pineapple, chopped celery, nuts, use drained pineapple juice to melt marshmallows, add soaked unflavored gelatin, mix. Fold in whipped heavy cream. Let set until set or overnight. It is a family tradition for the holidays at our house.
This recipe is similar and it may be less burdensome to make. It looks delicious. Thanks!
That sounds like such a fun holiday tradition Pat…and delicious too!
Hi Pat Summers, regarding the recipe that you mentioned about the cranberry salad, is there a chance you may have this recipe somewhere. I would like to make it for thanksgiving. I love the idea using celery in with my cranberry salad.
Thank you.
I remember my grandpa would make a recipe similar to yours when I was a child. It was so good!
Great memories Janice!
Love the recipes
Thank you Donna! Enjoy!
May I suggest that at the end of the recipe you add a line that says to “read ALL comments and the blog section before asking your questions.” You must have the patience of Job or have an automatic cut/paste option on your computer to continue to do this for us with all the duplicate question you get on every recipe you post. You have my permission to tell your readers (that ask questions that were previously answered) to read previous comments!
Thanks for the smile this evening Dakota. We do answer the same questions sometimes but, it is always a pleasure to get the chance to connect with the readers. :)
I just made this, using some of my frozen cranberries from the holidays, it looks (and taste) divine. Thank you for the recipe. I’m sure this will become a favorite of mine. :)
So glad you loved it!
I froze my cranberries cause I got them earlier then I was suppose to because I was going to make it for Thanksgiving. Anyway, I thawed out the cranberries mostly and made the sauce. I thought i was suppose to refrigerate the abuse first before adding to the salad. It probably would have been better had I not but we will see. It’s for a Christmas party today. I taste tested it and it tasted wonderful but i bet will even be better tonight. Everyone is looking forward to it. Thanks for a recipe I will continue to keep making. I’ll let you know how people like it.
Holly,
Need to know if the coconut in this recipe is sweetened or unsweetened?
It is sweetened. Enjoy!
I purchased unsweetened coconut! Any recommendations on how to alter the recipe to compensate?!
I think it will be just fine, the marshmallows and cranberry sauce have sweetness too.
Looks tasty.
This is amazing absolutely love it the balance between sweet and tart beautiful combination totally reccomend
We love it too Misty!
I’m making this salad as written right now. I love practically anything with cranberries in it so I’m excited about taking this as one of my dishes tomorrow. (Thanksgiving) Without even having tasted it
I know I will love it. The aroma is intoxicating and I mean that in the best way possible.
Happy Thanksgiving Judie!
Happy Thanksgiving! Thank you for sharing this recipe. I didn’t read it carefully enough so I dumped all the cranberries into the mixture, after draining the juice a little bit. I used almonds since that’s what I had on hand. Also, used fresh pineapple for extra sweet taste and 1 C greek yogurt (no sour cream). I had to sample a bite before putting it in the fridge…amazing!!! Can’t wait to have it tomorrow with the turkey :)
So glad you loved it! Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!