This easy Hawaiian Fruit Salad recipe uses canned fruit as the star, and every pantry should keep a few on hand just for a crowd-pleaser dessert like this one.
Hawaiian Fruit Salad is great for potlucks, picnics, and family get-togethers that call for a sweet finisher, and it 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 very 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 fairly quick to prepare, 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 canned fruit, jello and marshmallows. I recommend getting canned fruit in its own juice rather than heavy syrup. Heavy syrup adds calories and sugar that the recipe doesn’t need by the time it’s ready to eat.
WANT TO SAVE THIS RECIPE?
Don't lose this recipe! Enter your email and we'll send it instantly.
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 include many luscious fruit cocktail chunks, the pineapple of our youth, and a few marshmallows to make us happy. This is one sweet salad, so it’s more dessert than salad salad, but it sure is good!
“Hawaiian” Fruit Salad
WANT TO SAVE THIS RECIPE?
Don’t lose this recipe! Enter your email and we’ll send it instantly.
Equipment
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- oz bag mini marshmallows
- 1 24- oz container of sour cream
- 1 box orange flavored gelatin
Instructions
- Pour all the fruit in a colander over the sink and allow the juices to drain. Allow the fruit to drain for four hours to ensure that it is as dry as possible. If you would like, you can put a bowl or towel under the colander and place it in the fridge. If you are in a hurry, you can use a clean kitchen towel to dry the fruit.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the sour cream and orange jello. Stir until completely combined.
- Add the fruit and marshmallows to the bowl. Stir to coat.
- Chill in the refrigerator for at least one hour, four hours is better, overnight is great!
- Stir right before serving; serve chilled!
What size box of jello?
Hi there, the size is 3.4-oz. (96 grams) Volume and weight changes on packaging frequently, but it’s generally the smaller size box of whichever brand that serves 4. I hope this worked for you; I’ll double check that we have that info in the recipe!
Can Cool Whip be used in place of the sour cream?
Hi, Joye. Sure, you can, but sour cream helps cut the sweetness and add a little bit of density to hold the fruit together better. If you try it, let me know how it turns out. Cooking is always an adventure, isn’t it? –Andi
My mom made something similar. She used the same fruit but used cool whip and rice. She called it glorified rice.
That sounds good, Kathy. We made a Rice and Fruit Salad that we were surprised by. It wasn’t very sweet and it can be eaten hot or cold. Rice is so versatile, I bet your mom’s “Glorified Rice” was super good!
Does the orange jello turn the sour cream orange?
Want to try this for a hawaiian bunco pot luck.
Yes, it does, but not like neon orange. Because of the cool whip and such, it dilutes the color so it’s muted. –Andi