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 very well and then gently pat it dry to help keep the salad creamy.
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, since you won’t need that extra sweetness.
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How to Make Hawaiian Fruit Salad
This is one of those recipes that is so easy to make, that like me you will wonder why no-bake desserts haven’t become a staple in your house. The most work that you have to do for this is to allow the canned fruit to drain really really well. This is the big trick to keep the salad from becoming a watery, soggy mess.
Step 1: Drain the canned fruit
First, pour all of the canned fruit into a strainer and set it in the sink. The reason that you are doing this is so that it provides time for the juices to truly drain away. This will take longer than you think that it should.
If you are in a hurry, press the fruit gently, very gently, with a clean kitchen towel to soak up extra juice.
If you can, plan ahead and put the strainer in a bowl with the fruit, and place it in the fridge for 4 hours.
Step 2: Make the creamy base
Now, add the orange gelatin in a large mixing bowl. Then add in the sour cream. Finally, stir until the powder is fully dissolved. It should be smooth and pale orange.
Step 3: Fold in the fruit
Now, add the drained fruit into the sour cream mixture and stir until the fruit is fully coated.
Step 4: Add the marshmallows
Fold in the mini marshmallows.
Step 5: Stir and chill
Stir one more time just to be certain that everything is fully coated. Then cover and chill for 1 to 2 hours. It’s even better after four hours.
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!
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“Hawaiian” Fruit Salad
Ingredients
- 30-oz can fruit cocktail in juice, not syrup
- 20-oz can pineapple chunks in juice, not syrup
- 8-oz can mandarin orange slices in water, not syrup
- 10-oz bag mini marshmallows
- 24-oz sour cream full fat
- 3-oz box orange flavored gelatin
Instructions
- Pour all the fruit in a colander over the sink and allow the juices to drain. Press gently with a clean kitchen down so to help remove the moisture through the colander and help dry the fruit. If you would like, you can put a bowl or towel under the colander and place it in the fridge for an hour or two. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the sour cream and package of orange jello powder. Stir until completely combined.
- Add the drained fruit and marshmallows to the bowl. Stir to coat.
- Chill in the refrigerator for at least one hour, four hours is better.
- 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
Mom make it with cool whip. And coconut
I was thinking the same thing. Coconut would add another layer of the island d flavor. 👍
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
I thought you didn’t use cool whip?
I was just going to mix the jello and sour cream but you said in a recipe that the jello box is 3.4 oz with 4 servings. My box is the small one and says .44 oz with 4 servings. What size box and how many do I us?
What is the purpose of the jello. Never made it with jello and we ate big fans of Hawaiian salad. Yours sounds interesting will try it but would still like to know thank you
It serves as a binder of sorts, keeping all of the ingredients suspended. Plus some extra flavor. — Andi
Let us know what you think of it, Cinder. We are open to tweaks and love to hear what people think of our recipes. –Renee
I have never made it with the Jello and can’t imagine changing it up to add the extra calories in the box of Jello gelatin. I’d leave out the fruit cocktail, as well, and add drained, chopped maraschino cherries to the pineapple and the mandarin oranges. YUM!
I hate to sound dumb but the recipe doesn’t specify- do you make actual jello and add it just use the mix straight out of the pack?
Hi, Sarah, not a dumb question at all! I may need to clarify the instructions. You’ll use the packet of Jell-O powder in the ingredients, so you don’t prepare it into the jiggly stuff first. Hope that helps! –Andi
I make this recipe but I use shredded coconut in it too!
I’m wondering if you ever used a box of instant pudding instead of jello? Or a different flavor of jello?
My family loved this!
I’m going to try Tang instead of the Jello. I’m not partial to the flavor of orange Jello but I love the orange taste of Tang. I thought I would try 1/2 sour cream and cool whip also. I’m about to make it and will post results soon.
Hi there, how did this come out? I’m worried without the thickening/gel effect of the gelatin that it will just come out soupy or too loose instead of fluffy and creamy. Let us know how the Hawaiian Fruit Salad came out!
How bout adding pecans?
It was great. Didn’t drain fruit that much and jello set up was good
I am going to try this for a community picnic. your header says with cool-whip, but the recipe calls for sour cream. Does it matter???? I love this type of salad but I need to make sure..Thank you!
Sorry for the confusion, this uses sour cream, not Cool Whip.
Theres no mention ofcool whip in instructions or ingredients. Is it supposecto hv c ool whip in it? Im taking it to church tomorrow morning
Sorry for the confusion, Kathleen. This doesn’t use Cool Whip – the sour cream does the trick since the rest of the ingredients are so sweet. –Andi
have not tried the recipe yet but what I clicked on in Pinterest was “Hawaiian Fruit salad with cool whip”. in the recipe no sign of any cool whip. so did I miss it or what
No it was a typo on the pinterest image! This fluff salad uses sour cream! Thank you for your note, Millie. ==Andi
What size box of orange flavored gelatin?
A 3 oz box! Hope this helps.
Made this and it turned out great! Very good!
I used vanilla yogurt in place of sour cream!….WIN!!
Bev, that sounds good! Glad it worked out good for you! — Andi
Do you think I could add fresh blueberries or another fruit to give it more color? TY 🙂
Absolutely! The blueberries may burst so it will have swirly blue and no way that’s a bad thing. Let us know how it turns out! –Andi
I have made this recipe twice now. The sour cream kind of scared me at first, but the results were quite delicious- and the fruit cocktail with extra cherries was a good choice. We love having fruit salads on hand for a quick snack or dessert substitute. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for your feedback, Nadine! I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed it. –Andi
This is so good and it got me thinking of all the possible ingredient variations! Im going to try soften cream cheese instead of sour cream. Then thinking about the marachino cherries and the coconut Ill add those with a cup of pistachio pieces and change the jello to pistachio.
Very easy to make
I make with Cool Whip and pistachio pudding and add banana slices. Next time using coconut pudding and shredded coconut for more Hawaiian flavor.
Marg, that sounds amazing! What a level up on flavor that would be. –Andi & Renee’
My mom used to make this but she used cottage cheese in place of sour cream, and she added cool whip to it as well.
Hi Erin. I bet that was good too. We’ve played around with different flavors and textures and there are so many tasty combinations for jello salads like this one. I’ve been enjoying blended cottage cheese sometimes so it’s not so “chunky.” Do you like the sour cream in this Hawaiian Style Fruit Salad? — Andi
Very easy to make and very good
Thank you for letting us know, Theresa! Great to hear you enjoyed it!! All the best to you. –Andi & Renee’
How long will this stay fresh in fridge before serving?
Hi Katie. The fruit starts to let off juices pretty quickly, so if you need to refrigerate longer than four hours, just stir well from the bottom before serving. It was pretty wet 24 hours later, just FYI, but still tasted fine.