I love to serve cranberry salad alongside slow roasted prime rib, herb roasted turkey or crock pot ham for an easy and festive side dish recipe. This is always one of the first dishes to disappear at Thanksgiving dinner! I’m always looking for fun ways to serve cranberries other than your standard cranberry sauce. This cranberry salad is perfectly sweet and full of different flavors and textures. If you are a cranberry fan, make sure to also bake up a loaf of fresh cranberry bread to celebrate the season!
Cranberry Salad Ingredients
To make this recipe, you will need fresh cranberries, granulated sugar, apple, pineapple, marshmallows, pecans, coconut and whipped topping.
How Do You Make Cranberry Salad?
Place the cranberries in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the berries are coarsely chopped. Transfer the cranberries to a large bowl, add the sugar and stir to combine. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. Add the apple, pineapple, mini marshmallows, pecans and coconut to the cranberry mixture in the bowl. Next, add the whipped topping and gently fold it into the other ingredients. Add garnishes such as fresh cranberries and more marshmallows if desired, then serve and enjoy.
Tips For Cranberry Salad
I use a food processor to chop my cranberries. You can also roughly chop them with a knife or even use a blender. This salad can be made up to 8 hours before you plan to serve it. It’s important to let the cranberries sit in the sugar for a few hours so that the berries have time to absorb the sugar, which helps to temper their tartness. You can serve this salad as a side dish, or put it on the dessert table. Either way will work just fine!
Flavor Variations
While this recipe is delicious as written, you can change up the ingredients to customize the flavors to your tastes.
Dressing: Instead of whipped topping, feel free to use freshly whipped cream or vanilla Greek yogurt. The whipped cream in a can will not work in this recipe as it will deflate. Fruit: I typically go for Granny Smith apples, but other great options include Pink Lady, Honeycrisp or Braeburn. You can also use different types of fruit such as canned pears, mandarin oranges or even raspberries. Nuts: No pecans on hand? Try walnuts, almonds or pistachios instead. Garnishes: Add some fun garnishes to your salad such as fresh cranberries, candied pecans, more marshmallows, diced pineapple, fresh mint or even toasted coconut.
Once you try this salad, you’ll be hooked. It is a big favorite with the kids too, because no child can resist mini marshmallows!
Cranberry Salad Video
