Classic Ambrosia Salad is a holiday dessert classic everyone knows and loves. We serve this year round at family dinners and love how great it tastes. So easy to make and everyone loves it.

Ambrosia Salad Recipe

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I have to admit this is one of my favorite great recipes for the holidays! I grew up eating this fruit dessert salad along with Watergate Salad. They were my favorite side dishes every year.

Now that I am an adult and do the grocery shopping I will admit that I make this salad frequently. It is so good and everyone loves it. Plus you can make it ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve it.

The flavors of this salad are just delicious!!!

There are so many amazing variations of this dessert salad. I know I am going to get a ton of eye rolls and emails for calling this a salad since it doesn't have any lettuce in it but there is fruit and it is in a bowl so we are going to go with calling it a side dish or dessert salad.

We skip putting nuts in this Ambrosia Fruit Salad since we have so many family members that can not have nuts but you can definitely add them in if you like them. Our creamy base is cool whip and vanilla Greek yogurt but there are also variations with sour cream and cottage cheese.

Scroll to the bottom of this post to print recipe.

Ingredients Needed

Fruit Cocktail
Pineapple Chunks/Crushed
Mandarin Oranges
Mini Marshmallows
Cool Whip Whipped Topping
Vanilla Greek Yogurt
Shredded Coconut
Maraschino Cherries

Optional - Green Grapes, Bananas, nuts

Pineapple - You can use chunks or crushed pineapple depending on the texture and size you like in your salad.

Marshmallows - You can use plain white mini marshmallows or the fun mini fruit flavored marshmallows

Equipment Needed

Large Mixing Bowl - We are big fans of this glass batter bowl that has a handle. It makes it easy to mix ingredients and keeps the mixing bowl steady on the counter.

Spatula

Can opener