Ambrosia salad with Greek yogurt
15 min · 6 g protein · 170 cals / serving
The retro potluck fruit salad, still made the way people love it: pineapple, mandarin oranges, grapes, maraschino cherries, coconut, mini marshmallows and toasted pecans folded through a creamy dressing. The dressing is honey-vanilla Greek yogurt rather than whipped topping and sour cream, so it tastes fresh and tangy and still sweet.
Ingredients
Dressing
- 1 1/2 cups nonfat Greek yogurt
- 1 1/2 tbsp honey
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 can (20 oz), drained canned pineapple juice pack, tidbits in juice, well drained
- 2 cans (11 oz each), drained canned mandarin oranges in juice, well drained
- 1 1/4 cups red seedless grapes, halved
- 1/3 cup maraschino cherries, drained and halved
- 3/4 cup mini marshmallows marshmallows
- 1/3 cup shredded coconut, unsweetened
- 3 tbsp pecans, chopped and toasted
Steps
- Whisk the yogurt, honey and vanilla together in a large bowl until smooth.
- Drain the pineapple and mandarins very well in a sieve, pressing gently; extra juice turns the dressing thin. Pat the cherries dry. Add all the fruit, the marshmallows and the coconut to the bowl and fold gently so the mandarin segments stay whole.
- Cover and chill at least 1 hour, so the marshmallows soften and the coconut plumps. Scatter the toasted pecans over just before serving so they stay crunchy. Best eaten the day it is made.
Good to know
Can I make it the night before?
Mix the dressing and drain the fruit the night before and keep them apart, then fold together an hour before serving. Left overnight in the dressing, the fruit weeps and the salad gets watery.
Can I leave out the marshmallows?
Yes, and many people do; it is fruitier and a little less sweet, at about 47 instead of 43. Add a few extra grapes for volume.
Can I use fresh fruit?
Fresh pineapple and clementine segments are lovely. Add a little more honey, since canned fruit in juice is sweeter than most fresh.
Alternatives
Per
- Calories
- 93
- Protein
- (14%)
- 3 g
- Fat
- (24%)
- 2 g
- Carbohydrates
- (62%)
- 15 g
- of which sugar
- 13 g
- Fiber
- 1 g
- Sodium
- 15 mg
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Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How
As written, 1356 kcal goes into the pot and 1459 g of ingredients comes out as about 1459 g of food: 93 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.