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    Home » Cheat Day

    Author: Emily Krill | Published: Jun 7, 2019 | Modified: Jan 15, 2022

    Easy Cool Whip Ambrosia Recipe

    Jump to Recipe

    This Cool Whip Ambrosia Salad recipe is about as quick and easy as they come. If you have 5 minutes and 6 ingredients, you can mix up this simple but super delicious low-calorie dessert.

    a pink and a blue sorbet cup filled with suar-free
    Jump to:
    • 💬 About Ambrosia Salad
    • 🥣 Ingredients
    • 🥥 Coconut? Nuts?
    • 📖 Instructions
    • 🍚 Sugar-Free Options
    • ⏲️ Quick tips and tricks
    • 📋 Recipe
    • 📺 Watch the how-to video

    I found the best recipe.

    I was flipping through my Mom's old cookbooks yesterday, just looking for something sweet to make. And in between her Better Homes & Gardens and her Joy of Cooking, I found these thin spiral-bound cookbooks. They were dog-eared little recipe collections put together in the 1980s by the members of my Mom's Women's Club.

    Extreme close up of Ambrosia Salad

    It was great to see it again because I remember so many of these recipes from when I was a kid.

    Some of the recipes are so simple that you'd never find them in a real cookbook. Take poke cake for example. The instructions are "Bake a white box cake. Poke holes in it and pour Jello into the holes. Done." It was ridiculously simple to make, but who cares? Poke Cakes are the height of popularity!

    Which brings me to another ridiculously easy dessert: the Cool Whip Fruit Salad, also known as Ambrosia.

    a colorful bowl of easy Cool whip Ambrosia against a subway tile background

    💬 About Ambrosia Salad

    What is Ambrosia Salad?

    Ambrosia literally translates to "food of the gods". In today's recipe, that means a mixture of whipped cream, sour cream, marshmallows, pineapple, maraschino cherries, and mandarin oranges. And sometimes coconut.

    Why is it called Ambrosia?

    It was known as the food of the gods because the ingredients used to be so hard to come by. Ever noticed the pineapple motifs in woodwork from centuries past? They used to be much-coveted fruits brought from warmer climes. So a dessert involving pineapple was quite a treat for mere mortals.

    Is Ambrosia really a salad?

    A dessert made from Cool Whip and marshmallows doesn't really come to mind when you hear the word salad. So let's just put it in air quotes. Today I'm going to share my recipe for Cool Whip Ambrosia "Fruit Salad". But let's not kid ourselves that it isn't a marshmallow salad.

    What is the difference between Ambrosia Salad and Watergate Salad?

    These are both retro salads, and they have almost exactly the same ingredients, so it's easy to get them mixed up. But the Watergate Salad is a lovely minty green and involves pistachio pudding mix, and Ambrosia Marshmallow Salad does not.

    Looking for more fruit salads with whipped cream? Try this Watergate Salad, Mandarin Orange Jello Salad or Jello Fluff Salad. All three classic Cool Whip fruit salad recipes will take you back in time.

    A pink sorbet bowl holding a scoop of Simple Ambrosia Salad

    🥣 Ingredients

    • Cool Whip
    • Mini Marshmallows
    • Pineapple Tidbits
    • Mandarin Oranges
    • Maraschino Cherries
    • Sour Cream or Plain Greek Yogurt
    Easy Cool Whip Ambrosia Salad Ingredients

    🥥 Coconut? Nuts?

    These are optional ingredients that you can mix with the fruit and marshmallows. You can add chopped pecans, chopped walnuts, and/or sweetened shredded coconut to your Cool Whip Fruit Salad. I've gotten some salty comments from people who insist that an Ambrosia Fruit Salad recipe must include shredded coconut, but these people can talk to the hand.

    Because I just don't understand.

    Easy Cool Whip Ambrosia Salad Ingredients

    📖 Instructions

    You start by draining the pineapple, mandarin oranges, and maraschino cherries very well.

    step 1 drain fruit well

    Then mix together Cool Whip and sour cream in a large bowl.

    Step 1 drain fruit well

    Fold in the marshmallows. Fold in the cherries and pineapple. Fold in the mandarin oranges last because they are the most delicate and prone to break.

    step 3 fold in remaining ingredients

    Finally, you chill the "salad" in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. It's perfectly fine to eat it right after you mix the Cool Whip Ambrosia up, but chilling it gives the marshmallows time to soak up the liquid from the fruit.

    Step 4 chill for 2 hours

    🍚 Sugar-Free Options

    • I used Sugar-Free Cool Whip when I tested this recipe, but if you compare the nutritional labels of Regular and Sugar-Free, there is just a teeny tiny difference between the two. They both have 3g of carbohydrate, but Sugar-Free Cool Whip has 20 calories and regular has... 25 calories. So either one is fine.
    • Buy the pineapples and mandarin orange slices canned in water or juice, rather than syrup to make the recipe as low in sugar as possible. Go for "No Added Sugar" if you can.
    • There are no sugar-free maraschino cherries on the market, unfortunately.
    • You can buy sugar-free marshmallows on Amazon.

    sugar-free marshmallows

    La Nouba Sugar-Free Marshmallows

    Buy Now →

    ⏲️ Quick tips and tricks

    • You can swap the sour cream with plain yogurt if you'd like. I've tried making the "salad" both ways and couldn't taste any difference between the two.
    • You can use fruit flavored marshmallows for some added color and flavor.
    • You can also add 2-3 drops of red or green food color to give it a nice pale pastel look. Just stir the food coloring in after you mix together the Cool Whip and sour cream.
    • I put sweetened shredded coconut on the optional add in list, but many people see coconut as one of the main ingredients. So if you are on Team Coconut, you can add in ½ cup of coconut along with the marshmallows and fruit for a little added texture. Or you can just sprinkle a little shredded coconut on top as a garnish.
    • You can add in chopped pecans or walnuts if you'd like. Just use ½ cup of one or the other.
    • And the elephant in the room: the canned fruit.  You are free to use fresh fruit if you like, but in this one instance, canned fruit might even taste better.  The juices mix with the whipped topping when it sits in the fridge, and make it extra yummy.  But the following fruits will work in this salad: strawberries, bananas, blueberries, grapes, and apples.  
    • This really is the best Ambrosia Salad recipe to bring to get-togethers (not to brag).  It makes a great side dish at Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner and you will be the toast of any potluck dinner. I bring this to family dinners and am always the belle of the ball.
    a top down view of a a large bowl of Ambrosia Salad with Cool Whip

    And that's that. 👩‍🍳

    In just a few minutes, you'll have a super tasty Cool Whip Ambrosia recipe with just 100 calories per serving. After your first bite, you'll see why it ended up in the old beat-up community cookbook. These are all the best recipes from each woman, the ones that always slayed when they brought them to Tupperware parties and potluck dinners. The ones that everybody always wanted the recipe for.

    All you need is 6 ingredients and 5 minutes, and you can make yourself Ambrosia, the food of the gods. 🥰

    a top down view of a a large bowl of Ambrosia Salad with Cool Whip
    Print

    📋 Recipe

    Easy Cool Whip Ambrosia Salad

    a pink and a blue sorbet cup filled with suar-free
    Print Recipe

    ★★★★★

    5 from 10 reviews

    This recipe for Cool Whip Ambrosia Salad is about as quick as they come.  If you have 5 minutes and 6 ingredients, you can mix up this simple but super delicious low calorie dessert.

    • Author: Emily Krill
    • Prep Time: 5
    • Total Time: 5 minutes
    • Yield: 7 cups 1x
    • Category: Dessert
    • Method: Chilled
    • Cuisine: American
    • Diet: Low Calorie

    Ingredients

    Units Scale

    Ambrosia Salad:

    • 1 (8oz) tub of Sugar-Free or Regular Cool Whip
    • ½ cup sour cream
    • 2 cups mini marshmallows
    • 1 (20oz) can of pineapple tidbits or chunks
    • 1 (11oz) jar of maraschino cherries
    • 1 (15oz) can of mandarin orange slices

    Optional Add Ins:

    • ½ cup chopped pecans
    • ½ cup chopped walnuts
    • ½ cup sweetened shredded coconut
    • 2-3 drops food coloring

    Instructions

    Step 1.  Using a colander or sieve, drain as much of the liquid from the oranges, cherries, and pineapple as you can.  Keep the oranges separate from the other fruit because you are going to mix them in last.drain

    Step 2.  In a large bowl, mix together Cool Whip and sour cream.  Mix in food coloring if you are using it.mix

    Step 3.  Carefully fold in the marshmallows, pineapples, and cherries.  Fold in mandarin oranges last because they are the most delicate and prone to fall apart.fold Step 4.  Chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before serving.chill 

    Equipment

    ice cream bowl

    Glass Ice Cream Bowl

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    Fiesta Serving Bowls

    Fiesta Serving Bowl

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    footed trifle bowl

    Footed Trifle Bowl

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    Set of mixing bowls and silicone tools

    Mixing Bowl and Tool Set

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    Nutrition

    • Serving Size: ½ cup
    • Calories: 100
    • Fat: 2
    • Carbohydrates: 21
    • Fiber: <1
    • Protein: <1

    Keywords: Ambrosia Salad, Cool Whip Ambrosia Salad, Easy Ambrosia Salad

    📺 Watch the how-to video

    If you are looking for another quick fruit and cream recipe, try my Goat Cheese Covered Blackberries.

    « Orange Creamsicle Jello Whips
    Keto Strawberry Crumb Cake »

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. allen adleman says

      November 15, 2021 at 8:54 pm

      love the reciepe i would like to see more from that cookbook

      Reply
      • EmilyKrill says

        November 16, 2021 at 6:15 am

        Thanks! I bet you’d like a dessert I make called a Jello Whip. It’s just Jello that is mixed with whipped cream, but it’s really delicious. (The recipe has the name “Keto” in the title, but don’t let that scare you. It happens to be low carb because the Jello is sugar-free, but it tastes just like a regular dessert!)

        https://www.resolutioneats.com/blog/creamy-keto-jello-whips/

        Reply
    2. Mona Lisa Juarez says

      April 03, 2021 at 12:22 am

      I have made this but I use a can of drained fruit cocktail.

      Reply
      • EmilyKrill says

        April 04, 2021 at 8:43 am

        I've tried it this way, but the taste doesn't pack the punch that maraschino cherries, pineapple and mandarin oranges do.

        Reply
    3. Ethan says

      October 21, 2020 at 11:47 pm

      I love this recipe. I also add in blueberries to this recipe. I do 6 oz of fresh blueberries.

      ★★★★★

      Reply
      • EmilyKrill says

        October 22, 2020 at 8:31 am

        Sounds yummy.

        Reply
    4. Terry Hosey says

      July 10, 2020 at 7:35 pm

      I have been making this recipe for a while now and I do variations (mixing in different fruit and sometimes using cottage cheese instead of sour cream), but it always comes out great, thank you for this recipe.

      ★★★★★

      Reply
      • EmilyKrill says

        July 10, 2020 at 7:36 pm

        Sure thing! It’s a favorite at my house too.

        Reply
    5. Debbie says

      June 07, 2020 at 12:59 am

      It’s not Christmas dinner without Ambrosia! My sister would kick me out if I didn’t make it!

      Reply
    6. Ciana says

      January 22, 2020 at 6:08 am

      This brings back memories of church brunches as a kid

      ★★★★★

      Reply
      • Jo-Ann Austin says

        August 21, 2021 at 12:24 pm

        Me as well. My grandmother used to make it all the time and us kids loved it

        Reply
    7. Vickie Mathews says

      December 31, 2019 at 10:16 pm

      This is one of my favorites.It's so fresh and light I just love it.I tried to make it from memory,I almost done it.I used crushed pineapple and it got lost in all the other ingredients.It was still good,and I m so glad I found your recipe just to know I rememberd it! Thank you!

      Reply
      • EmilyKrill says

        January 01, 2020 at 10:35 am

        Sure thing! This is one of my favorite old recipes too.

        Reply
    8. Carol says

      October 18, 2019 at 7:00 pm

      My recipe includes sliced bananas and diced red and green apples. Drench them in the pineapple juice then drain and add with the original fruit. This is also a good time to add chopped walnuts or pecans. Just be careful how much you serve yourself if you're watching carbs.

      Reply
      • EmilyKrill says

        October 18, 2019 at 7:51 pm

        Sounds good.

        Reply
    9. Carol says

      September 03, 2019 at 8:32 pm

      I always loved this. One the first things I'd grab off the buffet table. Thanks for he recipe.

      Reply
      • EmilyKrill says

        September 04, 2019 at 9:37 am

        No problem. Thanks for letting me know you like it.

        Reply
    10. Dee says

      August 12, 2019 at 3:25 pm

      Wonderful and easy!

      ★★★★★

      Reply
      • EmilyKrill says

        August 12, 2019 at 3:53 pm

        Thanks!

        Reply
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    I'm Emily, the diabetic behind Resolution Eats. Many years ago, I made a New Year's resolution to switch to a low carb diet. It improved both my health and my outlook on life. Since then, I've come up with hundreds of Keto recipes for everything from soup to nuts. And this blog is a way for me to share the low carb love. Cheers!

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