5-Ingredient Five Cup Fruit Salad (Vintage Recipe)

Take a walk down memory lane with this classic 5-ingredient fruit salad! This family favorite vintage recipe is just as creamy, delicious, and enjoyable as you remember.

Also known as ambrosia salad or fluff salad, this 5 cup fruit salad recipe is a classic for a reason! In our house, it pops up every Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. It’s so easy, it’s one of the recipes I let my kids put together for family gatherings, so if you’re a beginner cook, you’re in the right place. It really doesn’t get simpler than this simple recipe.

This is the perfect recipe for potlucks, as a side dish for family dinner, or even as a dessert salad. With sweet pineapple, tangy sour cream, and a bunch of pillowy mini marshmallows, it’s a crowd pleaser for sure!

​What’s in 5-cup fruit salad?

As its name suggests, you make this classic recipe with 1 cup each of 5 ingredients. It’s a combination of sweet and tangy that blends perfectly!

• Pineapple Tidbits: I like the size of canned pineapple tidbits, but you can also use pineapple chunks or fresh pineapple. 
• Mandarin Oranges: Canned fruit is perfect for this easy fruit salad recipe! You can sub with fresh mandarin or clementine slices. 
• Shredded Coconut: You can use sweetened or unsweetened shredded coconut in this recipe, depending on how many sweet ingredients you want to include. Coconut flakes also work well.
• Mini Marshmallows: Miniature marshmallows are just the right size in this salad. I don’t recommend subbing with larger ones, unless you’re planning to cut them. You want small marshmallows to make this easy to eat!
• Sour Cream: Surprise! This unusual ingredient gives the salad the perfect tang to offset the sweetness of the fruit and marshmallows. It also turns this into a perfectly creamy fruit salad. You can sub greek yogurt, or even plain vanilla yogurt, for sour cream if you want to add protein and cut fat. Cool Whip also works if you want to lean into the sugary goodness!

Step 1 | Mix

Start by measuring 1 cup of each of the ingredients. That’s how this delicious salad got its name: you need 1 cup pineapple chunks, 1 cup mandarin oranges, 1 cup coconut, 1 cup miniature marshmallow, and 1 cup sour cream. Voila! 5-cup salad!

Mix all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl until everything is covered with the sour cream.

Step 2 | Chill

Cover your bowl with plastic wrap, and chill it in the fridge for at least an hour, or even until the next day. This delicious fruit salad tastes best cold.

Step 3 | Enjoy!

Variations

​While mandarin oranges and pineapple are the classic, this salad can be made with just about any fruit. Here are a few combinations that definitely work:

• Apple and Grape Salad: Simply replace the pineapple and orange with an equal amount of chopped fresh apple and grapes. Green apples and red grapes not only complement each other well, they look pretty too!
• Pineapple Mango: Replace the mandarins with canned or fresh mango for a tropical take!
• Strawberry Orange: Replace the pineapple with chopped fresh strawberries.