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.
→Follow me on Instagram where I often make a fool of myself←
Terry
We used to really class it uo and serve it in a ring of Jello. Only the healthiest for my family.
Karen
Fancy! ~ karen
Barb Dickson
My mom always made this salad at Christmas. We loved it. I just had a family cookbook printed and of coarse this recipe is included.
Susan
The Lions Club and the church ladies sell a lobster supper every year for $25. The cold lobster is divine, they even make gluten free homemade rolls, the whole thing is typical Maritime wonderful. But the main reason I get it every year is because they have a side of Ambrosia!
!
Kunyi Mangalam
HI Karen, I'm having a big moment of disconnect that the same person who is growing most of her own food is also concocting things to eat from things that come out of a can. I'm having a moment of "huh" what is this picture of marshmallow salad doing on Karen's site? Maybe she grew and canned her own pineapple? And I know it's possible to make home made marshmallows. And then, did she dye the cherries she grew and harvested from a singular cherry tree she imported from Japan, and keeps shielded by a DIY greenhouse she made from recycled windows? I dunno, but there's something reassuring and quirky about the white trash salad showing up on your blog. Thanks for including something that I only need a can opener for, and not an industrial paint stirrer. -kunyi
Karen
LOL, I do what I can but I'm not what you'd call a zealot. Bring on the canned fruit! ~ karen
whitequeen96
I remember having this at the home of a true Southern Lady. But instead of sour cream, she used mayonnaise! Gag!
whitequeen96
I remember having this at the home of a true Southern Lady. But instead of sour cream, she put MAYONNAISE in it! Gag!
Brian
Your next assignment, should you choose to accept it (cue music from Mission Impossible) is to invent a ketogenic version of White Trash Salad. The starting point might be the cup of sour cream. That might be the ending point too, but hey, sour cream!
Karen
At the moment my mission is to move more than 100 steps a day so the keto White Trash Salad is going to have to sit on the back burner for a bit, lol. ~ karen!
Brian
👍🤓
Dana
Mom made this. We ate it as a side dish here in Indiana, too. She made the best cranberry orange relish from scratch. I made it for Thanksgiving yrs ago when we got married. Everyone turned up their noses at it and said they prefer the canned cranberry relish. You know the stuff that still has the can shape? Yes, that. I'm not sure if they make this White Trash Salad. It's probably too fancy or high falutin' for them.
Jean
Oh my gosh. My cousin in Utah and I (in California) were just talking about this today. For her it was Aunt Doris’ salad; for me, it was Aunt Ada’s salad. Our Moms must have vied for ownership, but it was and still is the classic. The dedicated bowl, and the thought that how could this be called “salad”? I turned 75 this week. Some traditions never die. Thanks for the memories.
Karen
Yes! I remember my mother serving it in a cut glass (or maybe crystal?) bowl. ~ karen!
Beth Kolle
That’s EXACTLY the ‘salad’ we’d have at Easter, Thanksgiving and sometimes Christmas in my family. And it was called ambrosia. In the ‘60s, jello was considered to be ‘salad’.
I have a GREAT salad I call ‘surprise salad’ that I love to bring to potlucks and then watch people’s faces when they take a bite. It looks just like ambrosia. But it’s made from vegetables! It’s actually quite good, but everyone takes a bite expecting sweet fruit and coconut. It’s a ‘prank’ salad and it’s so much fun.
Mix together the day before and let it sit in the fridge overnight and think about it:
1 can each: kidney beans, sliced carrots, sliced potatoes (or cook up your own), drained sauerkraut (yes!) and chopped beets
1-2 slices of onion diced tiny
4-5 dill pickles, chopped
Dressing of 1/2 c mayonnaise, 1/2 c sour cream, a slurp of red wine vinegar and a tablespoon of dill. Add more dressing if you need it.
Chill overnight.
Makes my mouth water just writing this down.
Happy April Fools’ Day!
Beth
Karen
LOL! ~ karen
Patricia Jaroslawski
We didn't have this is salad in my house growing up so if I went to someone's house for dinner and this was served I was in heaven. I also love confetti bars (butterscotch chips, peanut butter, margarine and coloured marshmallows) which has since been renamed "Trailer Park Squares" because they seem like a dessert that would be beloved by Ricky, Julian and Bubbles. A special occasion has to have them on the dessert table.
Karen
I've never had a confetti bar! ~ karen!
Vikki
I'll see you and raise you---we can out-tacky you. We always just plopped a can of fruit cocktail in a big glob of Cool Whip (yum! fluffy oil product) and marshmallows. We were just as happy as a chicken with a june bug!
Christina Contri
Our families version has no coconut and uses softened cream cheese (instead of sour cream) and either MELTED marshmallows or marshmallow fluff. It may have cottage cheese in it as well. Forgive me, I don't have the "recipe" handy. We simply call it White Salad. So elegant!
When I was pregnant, someone forgot to make it for whatever holiday get-together we had and I was so disappointed! I went home and made a full-size batch, which I proceeded to consume for breakfast, lunch & dinner for the next 2 days.
Beverley
We had this salad at all family reunions as a side dish as well. We called it "Tomorrow's Salad" because it was always made the day before by one of the aunts. Guaranteed to get all the kids to the dinner table. Thanks for the sweet flashback.
Danny Haugh
I know you're joking, but it's kind of obnoxious to call this "white trash salad." It reads like, "HAHA, stupid poor people- look at the garbage they eat." And when you call it white trash salad, you aren't really serving it proudly- you're serving it behind a veil of irony and disdain. If you really want to own it, then OWN it. Call it ambrosia or marshmallow salad or make up some ridiculous name for it.
Chrissy
My daughter (28) & I are planning our Xmas eve family get together and she commented that she would like to have a salad that used to make an appearance at festive occasions when she was 5. All she could remember was that it had marshmallows. Thank goodness for Google and we found your blog, absolutely hilarious.
White Trash Salad is back on the menu! We love this!!
Laura Bee
Awesome, this must have been written before I was a commenter....because I have to share my Aunt's Green Salad with everyone. Lime Jello, cottage cheese, pineapple, walnuts & horseradish. There may be another secret ingredient in there. She brings it to every family dinner & church/community potluck in her Tupperware from 1976 which is carried in it's own fabric caddy bought from a church bazzar. You have to be born into the family to enjoy it we figure, as none of our spouses like it...they think it's weird. I always score a marg tub full to take home.
She stopped making the Orange Jello & Carrot Salad years ago. Even I think that's weird!
Lisa
We call it Pink Salad. My sister could live on it! Seriously. We also add cottage cheese, whip cream, and a packet of jello mix (which makes it pink). WT Salad is the perfect name! The best is watching my sister go ape shit over pink salad at Ponderosa buffet. She's 42. Pink salad and buffet are a match made in heaven.
Karen
I still have my headache, but this made me laugh out loud "watching my sister go ape shit over pink salad at Ponderosa buffet." ~ karen!
Amy Watson
We call it Ambrosia in the south, but no respectable Southerner would ever use canned fruit....we use fresh oranges fresh grapefruit fresh apples fresh pineapple, coconut,pecans marshmallows and a few marachino cherries thrown in to make it colorful, I guess and the dressing is mayo and sourcream in equal amounts...so there you go....the real " white trash" salad....
Margaret K.
Marshmallows and sour cream/whipped topping? My tastebuds hurt. Orange slices, grated coconut [real coconut, not that packaged stuff], some crushed pineapple [that does have to be the canned version where I live, because supermarket pineapples aren't ripe enough], orange juice, pineapple juice, and a little sugar to taste. Delicious.
Still wading through all the old posts...