Creamy Cranberry Salad is an easy, old-fashioned holiday recipe that can be served as a side dish or a dessert! It’s creamy and refreshing!
This Creamy Cranberry Salad doubles as a salad and an old-fashioned Fruit Dessert, like Cranberry Ambrosia Salad, that is perfect to serve during the Holidays. If you love these two, you have to give my Cranberry Jello Salad a try next!
Why You’ll Love This Salad?
- It can be served as a light side dish next to all the carb heavy sides during the Holidays.
- It is a perfect dessert for when you don’t want any more pie!
Sabrina’s Creamy Cranberry Salad Recipe
If you’re over everyday desserts, like cheesecake and ice cream, and want something a little more creative, you should definitely make a large bowl of Creamy Cranberry Salad. This recipe is super easy to make, and it makes the perfect holiday side dish or dessert. The great thing about this fancy, old-fashioned recipe is that you can dress it up for formal dinners or serve it on a paper plate if you and your family are over doing Thanksgiving dishes. This salad is perfect for holidays, get-togethers with friends, or even nights in when you’re feeling extra fancy.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 4 ounces cream cheese , softened
- 4 cups cool whip
- 8 ounce can crushed pineapple , drained
- 1 cup sweetened coconut flakes
- 14 ounces canned whole cranberry sauce
- 12 ounces mini marshmallows
Instructions
- Mix the cream cheese and cool whip together until well combined.
- Add in the crushed pineapple and coconut flakes.
- Remove the cranberry sauce from the can and mash well in a separate small bowl.
- Refrigerate the salad and the small bowl of cranberry sauce until completely chilled (preferably an hour).
- Fold in the marshmallows and cranberry sauce gently just before serving.
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Nutrition
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Note from Sabrina
I wouldn’t recommend layering the ingredients together after refrigeration until you’re ready to eat, or the cranberries will bleed into the whipped cream and turn everything pink. Keep everything cold and combine gently right as everyone is ready to sit down and enjoy dinner for the best possible flavor, texture, and color!
Table of contents
About this Recipe
Creamy Cranberry Salad is made with canned cranberry sauce, canned crushed pineapple, coconut flakes, marshmallows and Cool Whip. It combines the best of jello salad with delicious, thick whipped cream and tart cranberries to make a towering bowl of sweet, rich deliciousness. You may not immediately think of canned cranberry sauce when you think of jello salad, but with the addition of canned cranberries is an amazingly easy way to infuse the jello salad with flavor. As far as cranberry recipes go, this one is incredibly accessible, even for people who don’t like the sharp, tart tang associated with these berries. The natural sweetness of the fruit salad recipes counteracts the tartness, making this the perfect flavor fusion.
Can this be made ahead of time?
Yes, this salad needs some time to chill in the fridge so this is perfect to be made ahead of time! At the very least, be sure to refridgerate it for an hour but a few hours would be better. The longer it has to set, the better the flavors will meld together, as well as allowing your Whipped Cream to firm up a bit which helps hold everything together.
Pairing Suggestions
This salad is perfect to serve along side your Butter Blanketed Turkey and Bourbon Glazed Ham. Easy Mashed Potatoes and Easy Apple Sausage Stuffing are always a must on the Holiday table. Or serve this salad along side the other dessert options like Pumpkin Pie and Bourbon Pecan Bread Pudding.
How to Store
- Serve: This salad is so much better chilled, so you absolutely shouldn’t leave it out for longer than 2 hours. If it is going to be out longer than that consider setting the bowl of salad on top of a larger bowl of ice to keep it cool.
- Store: Cover your salad in plastic wrap or put it into an airtight container and refrigerate it. It will stay good for up to 2 days.
- Freeze: This salad will not freeze well. The freezing process isn’t kind to whipped cream, because the ice crystals that form in the whipped cream will absolutely destroy it. It is best to just make a fresh batch when you are craving it.
Variations
- Cranberry Sauce: You can use canned to make your life easier, but if you want to be a little extra (sometimes it’s fun) then I suggest using my Homemade Cranberry Sauce in place of the canned version.
- Cream Cheese: You could replace the cream cheese in this recipe with plain Greek Yogurt or Vanilla Greek Yogurt. You could even use sour cream or cottage cheese too!
- Fruit: You could always add some diced Granny Smith apples to this salad as well. Another fun one would be sliced green or red grapes.
- Canned Mandarins: Add canned, drained mandarin orange segments. Orange and cranberry make a great pair.
- Jello: Use a raspberry jello made with cranberry juice in place of the canned cranberry sauce.
- Rainbow Marshmallows: Mix it up with rainbow mini marshmallows for a more festive look.
- Add-Ins: Use fresh or dried sweetened cranberries in addition to your canned cranberry sauce.
- Nuts: Top with chopped nuts like walnuts, pecans or cashews for a bit of a crunch. To make them even better toast them on the stove or in the oven for a few minutes.
Related Recipes
More Amazing Creamy Salads
Photos used in previous versions of the post:
It’s too sweet for me I might try with unsweetened yogurt
Hi Pat,
Appreciate your feedback. Please let us know how your recipe turns out using yogurt!
Just making sure, “whole berry cranberry sauce” before I get ingredients.
Thank you.
Can you use canned cranberry jellied sauce?
The recipe description states “Creamy Cranberry Salad is a yummy, old-fashioned holiday recipe, with Jell-o …”, but there is no jello in the ingredient list nor is it mentioned in the recipe instructions. What jello flavor is recommended, and when is it added?
You can use raspberry jello made with cranberry juice in place of the canned cranberry sauce in the recipe.
Holy moly was this great, like a dessert but served it as a side dish and was a hit.
Yay! I’m so happy you enjoyed it!!
This is super easy to make and a perfect dish for a holiday party!
Definitely! Thanks for giving it a try.
Such a great classic recipe. This reminds me of eating holiday meals at my grandparents.
I love it when recipes have that nostalgic feeling.
I absolutely love this salad. My only issue is stopping from eating all of it.
Fantastic! Thanks for the 5 stars.
This pretty salad is a great way to use the extra cranberry sauce I always seem to have at the holidays. Looks like a crowd-pleasing addition to the holiday table.
Looks so yummy and sweet, perfect for Thanksgiving! Saving this to give it a try for the big day. 🙂
I hope you all enjoy it!