You will love this delicious traditional Ambrosial Salad Recipe with a bit of a modern twist! We modified the number of ingredients used to use many fewer ingredients, without affecting the taste of this delicious Ambrosia fruit cocktail.
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This fun and delicious Ambrosia salad is easy to make, and delicious! Everyone likes serving it for Christmas, when they call it Christmas ambrosia salad. However, this recipe for ambrosia dessert is great any time of year.
What Is Ambrosia Salad?
Traditional Ambrosia Salad is a nostalgic fruit salad this is a fruit salad that uses canned mandarin oranges, oranges, pineapples, cherries and other fruit, together with marshmallows and a whipped topping.
We simplified it, to use mandarin oranges, nuts, marshmallows and a real whipping cream topping. The ambrosia salad tastes amazing with those ingredients, you will love this simplified recipe!
What Are The Ingredients For Ambrosia Salad?
What’s in ambrosia salad? You need just a few ingredients to make this easy ambrosia recipe:
– Canned Mandarin Oranges, mandarin oranges in light syrup are delicious in the Ambrosia fruit cocktail salad.
– Marshmallows, fun marshmallows are great in this fruit salad. They add lots of texture and unexpected taste.
– Pecans, toasted pecan nuts are delicious in this dish! And since a lot of people serve Ambrosia fruit salad for Christmas, we love adding pecans to this salad.
– Almonds, just like with pecans, toasted almonds are delicious and are great in this salad.
– Granulated Sugar, just a bit of sugar, to add more sweetness.
– Heavy Whipping Cream, dress the salad with delicious whipped cream.
And here is the equipment you need to make the delicious Ambrosia Christmas Salad:
Tools You Will Need To Make Classic Ambrosia Fruit Salad
– Cutting Board, use the cutting board for chopping nuts.
– Kitchen Knife, use the knife for cutting almonds and pecans.
– Salad Bowl, you will need the salad bowl for mixing all of the Ambrosia salad ingredients together.
– Immersion Blender, use the immersion blender for whipping heavy cream.
– Mixing Spoon, use the mixing spoon for carefully mixing together all the salad ingredients.
– Plates, use the plates for serving the delicious Ambrosia fruit cocktail.
More Christmas Recipes and Posts
Ambrosia salad recipe is great to make during Christmas time! Here are more delicious Christmas recipes and blog posts:
– Christmas Cake Balls, these amazingly delicious Christmas truffles are made with cake mix cake and then covered in delicious chocolate coating!
– Personalized Christmas Mugs, these personalized Christmas mugs make the best Christmas gifts.
– Christmas Chocolate Marshmallows, if you love marshmallows in Christmas ambrosia salad, then you will love them in other recipes too! These chocolate marshmallows are dipped in chocolate and then sprinkled with Christmas Sprinkles for the most festive Christmas dessert.
– Veggie Christmas Tree Appetizer, this is a super cute Christmas appetizer that looks like a decorated Christmas tree!
– Unique Christmas Salt And Pepper Shakers, fun salt and pepper shakers that look like Santa, snowmen and other fun Christmas figurines.
How Do You Make Ambrosia Salad
Here is how to make delicious classic ambrosia salad.
Open the can of mandarin oranges and drain them.
Chop and toast the almonds and pecans until they are fragrant. Cool for a few minutes. Chop the nuts on the Cutting Board.
Combine the heavy cream with 1 tablespoon of sugar, and use the Immersion Blender to whip it until it thickens.
In a Salad Bowl combine mandarin oranges, almonds, pecans and marshmallows. Fold in the heavy cream and carefully mix with Mixing Spoon.
Serve on Plates for dinner of Instant Pot Turkey Bread, Roasted Butternut Squash Cubes, Strawberry Salad With Cherries and Blueberries and 3 Ingredient Instant Pot Pear Cranberry Mocktail.
Ambrosia Salad Recipe Variations
You can adjust this delicious ambrosia recipe to your tastes. Here are other variations for this delicious fruit salad:
– Use walnuts. Substitute walnuts for pecans, or use walnuts in addition to pecans. Either way the salad will taste great.
– Use pistachio nuts. Especially during Christmas time, pistachios will add festive green color to the Ambrosia salad. Toast the nuts, chop them and add them to the delicious salad.
– Ambrosia salad with sour cream. No whipping cream? Replace whipped cream with sour cream. whip sour cream with a bit of sugar and fold it into the fruit ambrosia salad.
– Ambrosia with cool whip, you can also use cool whip for this Ambrosia dessert recipe.
– Vegan ambrosia, to make vegan Ambrosia fruit salad, use vegan whipped topping.
– Cranberry ambrosia salad, to make the salad with cranberries, use a handful of delicious Dry Cranberries to add to the salad. If you add pistachio nuts in addition to cranberries, you will have a delicious red and green salad, perfect for Christmas.
What To Serve With Ambrosia Dessert
Once you make this recipe for ambrosia salad with whipped cream, what should you serve with it? As the Ambrosia salad is usually a dessert, you should serve it as the end of a delicious dinner. Here are three dinner ideas:
– Christmas Dinner, serve with Cucumber Salmon Bites, Instant Pot Leg of Lamb, Spicy Roasted Cauliflower, Greek Spinach Rice, Greek Salad.
– Thanksgiving Dinner, serve with Ground Turkey Stuffed Acorn Squash, Sausage Stuffing, Air Fryer Lid French Fries , Easy Cucumber Tomato Salad With Cauliflower, Instant Pot Apple Cider.
– Easy Lunch, make serve ambrosia dessert after lunch of Air Fryer Keto Chicken Cordon Bleu, Air Fryer Baked Acorn Squash, Blue Cheese Wedge Salad and Cucumber Lemon Mint Water.
Frequently Asked Questions About Fruit Ambrosia Salad
What’s ambrosia salad?
Ambrosia salad is a salad made with nuts, marshmallows, mandarin oranges and dressed with whipped cream.
Can you make ambrosia fruit salad with sour cream?
You can whip sour cream with a bit of sugar and add it to the salad. Sour ream has a more tart note, so the taste would be different from when you make Ambrosia salad with whipping cream.
Can you make ambrosia fruit salad with Cool Whip?
You can use Cool Whip in the fruit salad instead of whipping cream.
Can you make vegan ambrosia fruit salad?
All of the fruit salad ingredients except for whipped cream are vegan. So if you can use a vegan substitute for whipped cream, you can make vegan ambrosia fruit salad.
Is ambrosia salad a dessert?
With all the delicious ingredients that go into traditional Ambrosia salad, it is definitely a dessert.
How to make Ambrosia fruit salad?
To make classic Ambrosia salad, combine Mandarin Oranges, Small Marshmallows, Toasted Pecans, Toasted Almonds and fold some whipped cream in.
How To Store Fruit Ambrosia Salad
Store the delicious fruit salad in an air tight container in the refrigerator. You can store it for 1-2 days. Chances are it will disappear as soon as you make it, so it won’t last nearly as long.
Save Classic Ambrosia Salad Recipe For Later
Save Fruit Ambrosia Salad to your Christmas Desserts Board or Dessert Recipes Board on Pinterest!
How to Make Ambrosia Fruit Salad
Equipment
- Salad Bowl
Ingredients
- 2 cans Mandarin Oranges
- 2 oz Pecans
- 2 oz Almonds
- 1 oz Small Marshmallows
- 1 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
- 1 tbs Granulated Sugar
Instructions
- Chop and toast the almonds and pecans until they are fragrant. Cool for a few minutes.
- Combine the heavy cream with 1 tablespoon of sugar, and use the hand blender to whip it until it thickens.
- In a salad bowl combine mandarin oranges, almonds, pecans and marshmallows. Fold in the heavy cream. Serve immediately, or put in the fridge for a few hours for all the flavors to meld.Serve with dinner of Instant Pot Leg of Lamb, Mashed Potatoes, Air Fryer Asparagus, Cranberry Apple Mocktail.
I’m from the deep South and we always have ambrosia on any Christmas buffets. This is another one of those foods that seems to change ingredients based on availability of food in the various regions.
Ours was oranges, grapefruits, cherries (the ones that go in alcoholic drinks), pecans and shredded coconut. We usually also added just a little bit of orange juice and sometimes walnuts. Some people started adding cans of fruit cocktail and marshmallows but I never liked those items in it. In recent years I have made it more a tropical salad and added banana slices and mango slices but never ever pineapple – can’t stand it:)
Sounds amazing! I need to try it, thanks for sharing!
Yum!! This is such a fun salad to bring to picnics and bbqs! Can’t wait to make it soon!
Love the combination of ingredients in this fruit salad. Thanks for sharing.
This was so creamy and delicious. It went down very well at a party I hosted.
This fruit salad takes me back to cherished moments and family gatherings from years gone by. Thank you for sharing this treasured recipe that evokes fond memories and brings a smile to my face.
I’ve never made ambrosia salad so I really appreciate the detailed instructions! This looks sooo good and I can’t wait to try it.
Perfect! I love this recipe! I haven’t made one in ages. Thanks for the idea!
So simple and perfect for parties and holidays!
Can’t wait to try this version of ambrosia fruit salad! I looks so tasty!
This simple and fabulous ambrosia fruit salad is a great addition to a family Holiday meal or a Sunday dinner.