It seems very wrong to call anything containing several cups of marshmallows a salad, but history dictates that's exactly what this is. It's Marshmallow Salad with canned fruit; similar to ambrosia but served with the meal not as a dessert.
I know a salad made out of marshmallow and canned fruit seems like a joke but this mixture of mini marshmallows, shredded coconut, mandarin oranges, crushed pineapple, maraschino cherries and sour cream (not Cool Whip) is serious stuff on the holiday dinner table.
And one of those holidays will be here momentarily.
UNTIL THE 4 DAY EASTER WEEKEND
You'll note the addition of *sour cream* instead of Cool Whip which makes my recipe super classy.
It's kind of how I made Brussels sprouts classy (edible) by tossing them in dijon mustard and honey. After deep frying them.
For as long as I can remember, my family has served Marshmallow Salad at holiday dinners. Sometimes we'd call it Ambrosia, on occasion we'd refer to it it Sour Cream Salad. Truth is, we really never knew what to call it, other than an embarrassment.
We're not the fanciest people on earth, but we're fancy enough to know anything that includes marshmallows should at least be served as a dessert. We serve it as a side dish.
There it sits on the table, right beside the perfectly respectable green beans and mashed potatoes; a big bowl of marshmallows, fruit and coconut winking, "Here I am, in all my tacky glory. Caught ya lookin'!".
Table of Contents
Marshmallow Fruit Salad
If you change it up a bit and call it a fruit salad with marshmallows it sounds almost healthy.
Ingredients
- 10 oz. Can of Mandarin Oranges (drained very well)
- 14 oz. Can of Crushed Pineapple (drained very well)
Speaking of pineapples, I tested out the pulling apart a pineapple hack you can see the results here.
- 1 cup Sour Cream
- ⅓ cup Maraschino Cherries (cut in half)
- ¼ cup Sweetened Coconut
- 3 cups Mini Marshmallows (use the coloured ones for added trash)
If marshmallow salad was a dinner guest, she'd be the sparkly, hooker-with-a heart-of-gold that your Uncle Nick brings to Easter dinner every year. An embarrassing, loud, colourfully dressed dish that you can't help but love.
Plus it's sort of understood you don't talk about either one of them in public.
Steps
- Add all the ingredients to a bowl.
2. Then fold everything together. Cover it up and let set in fridge overnight.
Where did it originate?
Ambrosia (the inspiration for marshmallow salad) was first recorded in a recipe book from 1867 called the Dixie Cookery in the Southern United States. Here's the best part. You can STILL buy the Dixie Cookery cookbook.
I found a copy of the entire Dixie Cookery cookbook online through the Library of Congress. The second recipe in the book starts with "Boil a calf's head".f
I like marshmallow salad. Even though they may not admit it publicly, so does everyone else.
White or Coloured Marshmallows?
If you make marshmallow salad with white mini marshmallows it'll look a bit more like a trifle. It tastes a little different as well because the coloured mini marshmallows are actually fruit flavoured.
But making it white and putting it in a cup classes it up a bit.
Marshmallow Salad (also known as White Trash Salad)
Ingredients
- 1 10 oz can mandarin oranges drained very well
- 1 14 oz can crushed pineapple drained very well
- 1 cup sour cream
- ⅓ cup maraschino cherries cut in half
- ¼ cup sweetened shredded coconut
- 3 cups mini marshmallows
Instructions
- Add all the ingredients to a bowl and fold together.
- Cover with plastic and let set in the fridge overnight.
Nutrition
If you're looking for another dish to horrify your guests with (until they try them) whip up these bacon wraps made from bacon, condensed milk, dijon, cheese and bread. You would NEVER think those ingredients would make up anything even close to delicious but they're a favourite of everyone who's tried them.
I'm not sure when it happened, but I've taken over the Marshmallow/Sour cream/Ambrosia Salad tradition. It is now my job to smuggle it out of the house under the cover of ageing Tupperware, to all of our holiday dinners. If the neighbours ask, I lie and tell them it's something a little more respectable than marshmallow salad. Like a 3 bean salad. Or a shrunken head.
The good news is, this dish now officially has a name in our house. One year it was dubbed White Trash Salad. The name stuck quickly like Crazy glue to a hard hat. Or sparkles to a stripper.
Here's to strippers, hookers, marshmallows and not caring what other people do or think. Here's to ... white trash salad.
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I saw it being called “Honeymoon Salad”! I could never eat it. Just nope!! Happy Easter!!
I grew up having this at every Thanksgiving meal, though we called it "Heavenly Hash" (rhymes with trash)!
My son brought it to a 3rd grade pre-Thanksgiving meal for students to share dishes from their heritage (very diverse student body). Marshmallow and 3rd graders - big hit! Go figure! ;)
My family has always called it "fruit salad" so, in our white trash get-togethers, we actually have something that sounds healthy. We use Miracle Whip instead of sour cream and serve the "classy" version with white mallows on Thanksgiving and the colored ones for Easter cuz they're so purdy.
And since you’ve cleaned out your kitchen drawers you have room to get that syllabub-churn on Etsy! Something you can whip out at parties and play Guess What This Is For
Or maybe hide it in Betty’s kitchen drawer…
This style of recipe, with the sour cream is the best! Our family does not use coconut but we do use all sorts of (sweetened) canned fruit: peaches, fruit cocktail, apricots, pears, pineapple chunks, sometimes tropical fruit cocktail, well drained, very well drained. We've never used the colored marshmallows, just the plain white.
BUT the sour cream is the kicker here. So much better than the ones with whipped cream.
It is really dessert, like you mention.
A childhood favourite! Not so keen now. A little too sweet. But it was fun to recall how I enjoyed it long ago. Thanks, Karen. Happy Easter. P.S. Did I miss something or are Snacks and Co. no longer in residence?
Hi Hettie. I have an owl post coming up tomorrow! :) ~ karen!
I love white trash salad, but we always called it marshmallow salad. My mom always made it at Christmas, but always with white marshmallows.
White marshmallows make it classy. ~ karen!
This dish is a major tradition at our house. Since childhood, we've called it Candy Salad, since it looks like candy with the coloured marshmallows.
It does look like a candy salad. Tastes like it too. ~ karen!
I know I'm in the minority - but I can't get a spoonful of ambrosia past the back of my throat. Just can not swallow it. I love all the players separately, just can't do the whole team at once. lol
I bind my fruit together with sour cream, cream cheese & whipping cream which makes it super classy! Actually made it a few weeks ago and ate it for breakfast, lunch and supper - so truly, it's a very versatile dish.
But can you snack on it?? I believe yes you can, so you're right. An incredibly versatile dish that knows no boundaries. ~ karen!
Marshmallow salad was a staple at every single wedding and baby shower in my family. Classic 70's party fare. At every holiday get together, it was served. I love it but only have it once every 5 years or so now. Just seeing the picture of it makes me feel nostalgic. Happy Easter, Karen!
Thanks Kat! Just got back from buying the ingredients so I can whip it up on Saturday night. ~ karen!
I love it!! The first Thanksgiving after I met my birth mother (I was 42 at the time) was the first time I ever had "the pink stuff"....that's what they called it (probably because someone in the crew thought it a good idea to add red jello to the mix of random ingredients and that turned the whole mess kind of Pepto-pink!). 25 years later, I still have "the pink stuff" whenever I am with the fam in the piney woods of deep East Texas and love it as much as that first Thanksgiving with my mom....funny how some foods can bring back all the feels, and marshmallow salad does it for me!
Honestly? Nothing better in the queue? I could have given you and the gang this recipe any time over the past 40 yrs. It Died for a reason.
Honestly? I would have preferred a salad recipe with Beets. I've grown to love them.