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Sweet-and-tangy, cold-from-the-fridge 5 Cup Salad is a cheerful addition to any table. The whole thing comes together with one cup each of five ingredients: sour cream, pineapple, mandarin oranges, maraschino cherries, and mini marshmallows. No stove or fancy bowl required. The cherries stain the sour cream just enough to turn everything that soft pink color, and the marshmallows get tender after a couple hours in the refrigerator.
Why You’ll Love It
- Five simple ingredients — everything is measured in easy one-cup portions.
- No cooking required — just drain, fold, and chill.
- Sweet-tangy flavor — sour cream keeps the fruit and marshmallows from being cloyingly sweet.
- Make-ahead friendly — a couple of hours in the refrigerator gives the flavors time to settle together.
Ingredient Notes
Sour cream is what gives this salad its classic flavor. Please don’t panic over that if expecting something like whipped dessert fluff—it is creamy, but it has a little pleasant tang. Full-fat sour cream tastes best here. Plain Greek yogurt can stand in if preferred, and vanilla Greek yogurt makes it sweeter, though then some of that old-fashioned bite is lost.
For the pineapple, canned chunks are easiest. Roughly chop them a bit so there are no giant slippery pieces flopping off the spoon. Tidbits work too, and crushed pineapple can work in a pinch, but drain it very, very well. Watery fruit salad is sad business.
Canned mandarin oranges are soft and sweet and hold together nicely. Fresh orange sections can be used if absolutely needed, but they don’t taste quite the same.
Maraschino cherries are non-negotiable—not because the recipe falls apart without them, but because they bring that bright pink color and silly little sweetness. Remove the stems and halve them.
Plain white miniature marshmallows are classic, though the pastel kind are fun if available. Rainbow marshmallows make the salad look like it belongs at a kindergarten birthday party. In the best way.
Ingredients
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 cup pineapple chunks, roughly chopped and drained well
- 1 cup mandarin oranges, drained well
- 1 cup maraschino cherries, drained, stems removed, and halved
- 1 cup miniature marshmallows
Instructions
Put the sour cream in a medium mixing bowl and whisk it until smooth. This only takes a minute, but it makes folding everything together easier.
Make sure all the fruit is drained really well. Let the pineapple and oranges sit in a colander for a few minutes, then give them a gentle blot with paper towels if they still look wet. The cherries need draining too, even though their syrup is that gorgeous red color. Especially the cherries, actually. Too much liquid will turn the whole bowl thin and runny.
Add the chopped pineapple, mandarin oranges, halved cherries, and miniature marshmallows to the bowl with the sour cream. Fold everything together gently with a spatula until it is just combined. Don’t beat it around like you’re making cement. The oranges are delicate and will break apart if handled aggressively.
Cover the bowl and refrigerate the salad for at least 2 hours. That chilling time matters. The flavors settle together, the marshmallows soften, and the salad gets that creamy, scoopable texture it’s supposed to have.
Serve it cold. Give it a gentle stir before spooning it into bowls if it has been sitting awhile.
Variations
Sweetened shredded coconut nudges this closer to an ambrosia-style salad. It is good, though the clean five-ingredient version is still a favorite. Chopped pecans can be added on top right before serving. Nuts stirred in too early lose their crunch and become sort of… damp.
Grapes or chopped apples can stretch the bowl for a bigger dinner. Just know it will no longer be a true five-cup salad, which may sound fussy, but names do mean something. At least until every creamy thing started being called “salad.” A little whipped topping can be folded in for a fluffier, sweeter version, too.
Avoid sliced bananas unless serving immediately. The bananas go soft and brownish and make the whole thing look like it had had a rough night. Tasted fine, looked awful. Some lessons arrive in a pink bowl.
Storage & Reheating
Keep leftover 5 Cup Salad in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. It is best the first day and still perfectly decent the next, though the marshmallows continue to soften as it sits. For make-ahead preparation, wait and fold in the marshmallows shortly before serving to keep them a little more pillowy.
There is no reheating here. Serve it cold, always. Freezing is not recommended—the fruit releases too much liquid when it thaws, and the creamy texture gets grainy.
Final Notes
This recipe may seem almost too simple to write down. One cup of this, one cup of that, stir it up and chill. But those are often the recipes that hang around the longest. The ones scribbled on an index card, the ones made without looking, the ones that show up for celebrations or simple suppers.
Serve it for a holiday table, a backyard supper, or just because there is a bag of mini marshmallows shoved behind the cereal boxes. And if it gets called dessert instead of salad—well. That is not wrong.
5 Cup Salad
Ingredients
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 cup pineapple chunks roughly chopped and drained well
- 1 cup mandarin oranges drained well
- 1 cup maraschino cherries drained, stems removed, and halved
- 1 cup miniature marshmallows
Instructions
- Put the sour cream in a medium mixing bowl and whisk it until smooth.
- Drain the pineapple, mandarin oranges, and maraschino cherries very well, letting the pineapple and oranges sit in a colander for a few minutes and gently blotting with paper towels if they still look wet.
- Add the chopped pineapple, mandarin oranges, halved cherries, and miniature marshmallows to the bowl with the sour cream, then fold gently with a spatula until just combined.
- Cover the bowl and refrigerate the salad for at least 2 hours so the flavors settle together, the marshmallows soften, and the texture becomes creamy and scoopable.
- Serve the salad cold, giving it a gentle stir before spooning it into bowls if it has been sitting awhile.