This easy peasy Hawaiian Fruit Salad recipe uses canned fruit as the star, and every pantry should keep a few of these on hand just for an occasion like one.
Hawaiian Fruit Salad is great for potlucks, picnics, and family get-togethers that call for a sweet finisher and appeals to a lot of people.
And don’t be fooled—just because it has a lot of fruit in it doesn’t mean it’s not a sweet dessert.
I grew up seeing a salad like this one on many a potluck table, sometimes it had cottage cheese or Cool Whip in it, but I mistook it once for a potato salad.
Let’s just say I make sure now before I take a bite with my burger.
This recipe is one of those you can whip up together fairly quickly, especially if you drain the canned fruit and then towel it dry. You don’t want a “soupy” fruit salad.
The beauty of the sour cream in this recipe is that it helps cut through the sweetness of all the fruit, jello and marshmallows.
I’d recommend getting the kinds of canned fruit that are in their own juices rather than heavy syrup.
Heavy syrup will only add calories and sugar that the recipe doesn’t really need by the time it’s ready to eat.




The bottom line
This potluck favorite comes together with a few pantry ingredients and a huge container of sour cream.
The trick to avoiding soupy salad is to make sure all this canned fruit gets nice and dry before adding the other ingredients. Let it drain for a long time, and preferably towel it dry while in the colander.
This should set up nicely and have a lot of luscious fruit cocktail chunks, pineapple of our youth, and a few marshmallows to make us happy.
This is one sweet salad, so it’s more dessert than salad, but it sure is good!




Hawaiian Fruit Salad
This is an easy to make Hawaiian fruit salad made with sour cream and orange Jello.
Ingredients
- 1 30 oz can fruit cocktail in juice
- 1 20 oz can pineapple chunks in juice
- 1 8 oz can mandarin orange slices
- 1 10.5 oz bag mini marshmallows
- 1 24 oz container of sour cream
- 1 box orange flavored gelatin
Instructions
- Pour all of the fruit in a colander over the sink and allow the juices to drain out. Allow the fruit to drain for four hours to make sure that it is as dry as possible. You can put a bowl or towel under the colander and place it in the fridge if you would like. If you are in a hurry you can use a clean kitchen towel to dry the fruit.
- In a large mixing bowl add the sour cream and orange jello together. Stir until the two are completely combined.
- Add in the fruit and marshmallows to the bowl. Stir to coat.
- Chill in the refrigerator for one hour.
- Serve cold!
Notes
To dry the fruit fast you can put it in a salad spinner.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 6 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 633Total Fat: 22gSaturated Fat: 12gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 6gCholesterol: 67mgSodium: 139mgCarbohydrates: 109gFiber: 3gSugar: 89gProtein: 6g