Creamy Fruit Salad
A summer-loving fruit salad with mandarin oranges, pineapple, and pears mixed with mini marshmallows and vanilla greek yogurt.
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Table of Contents
About Creamy Fruit Salad
With this recipe I’m (trying to) accomplishing two things: will the warmer weather to last a little longer with a summer-loving fruit salad and crossing off yet another recipe on my ever-growing culinary bucket list.
Granted, the weather here in Phoenix is still blazing hot, but it’s been a little more reasonable the past few weeks thanks to all the extra rain that’s been steadily rolling through. But while the rest of the country will have crisp winds and pumpkin spice everything, the residents of Phoenix will continue to roast under the sun well into October.
So if you’re in the camp that wishes they could lock up their scarves and sweaters and throw away the key, then this summer-loving recipe is just for you. I’ll send some of my Phoenix sunshine karma your way.
And as for this dreamy fruit salad recipe, I’ve seen variations of it floating around on Pinterest for years, and like every other person on Pinterest I’ve probably pinned every one of those variations a hundred times over. I just never had an occasion to make a fruit salad like this before, and even when I wanted to, I was also missing a key ingredient:
Canned pear halves.
I don’t know about you, but that’s just not something I keep stocked in our kitchen. So to make this fruit salad, I’d need a special reason to buy it – and typical me, whenever I try to plan my shopping for the week it’s like I come down with situational amnesia, where all the delicious recipes I’ve been drooling over float out of my head and I end up leaving the store with 10 boxes of Tuna Helper.
But last week the planets must have aligned, because not only was I thinking of this recipe while at the grocery store, while in the aisle with the canned foods, but the pear halves were also on sale. A very good sale. And wouldn’t you know it, but I’m a sucker for a sale. So I called it a win and picked up four cans of pear halves.
Mental note for later: find more recipes that use canned pears.
Most fruit salads are pretty simple, but what I loved about this one is that there’s hardly any prep time. For instance, I didn’t need an hour of my day cutting up a couple gallons of fruit. Well, okay, I did have to chop up the pear halves, but it took me all of 60 seconds from start to finish. Everything else you can pour straight from the can.
And when you add in the marshmallows and cover it all on creamy greek yogurt?
Yeah, you’ve sold me.
Because if you couldn’t already tell, I’m a sucker for easy fruit salads with yogurt. In fact, if you’re a regular visitor to this blog, you already know I prefer tasty dishes with minimal ingredients, like this recipe for garlic parmesan broccoli or this one for classic puppy chow.
Now, don’t get me wrong – I love to cook – but the lazy girl in me (which, okay, is the greater majority of me) just loves it when I can whip together something as tasty as this fruit salad in less than five minutes.
Makes me feel like a magician.
Now if only I could wave my arms around and let the warmer weather last a little bit longer.
notes & tips for this creamy fruit salad recipe
- This recipe is designed to be made with canned fruit, but it can also be done with fresh. Use whichever is easier (or tastier!) to you!
- Like the bowls used in these photos? I bought that glass set ages ago, but I found this set online that’s nearly identical: mini trifle bowls.
- If you’re in the mood for more fruit, be sure to check out Chicken Salad with Grapes, Frog Eye Salad, Tropical Fruit Parfaits, Glazed Fruit Pizza, Patriotic Fruit Pizza Cookies, Fruit Salad with Creamy Limoncello Dressing, Mixed Berry Dutch Baby, Strawberry Lime Tequila Infused Parfaits, Strawberry, Kiwi, and Granola Breakfast Popsicles, Raspberry Pound Cake Parfaits, Raspberry and Walnut Baked Brie, and Caramel Apple Nachos.
This recipe was originally published on March 6th, 2015. It received a TLC update with new photos on August 19th, 2016.
Creamy Fruit Salad
Ingredients
- 1 cup vanilla greek yogurt
Instructions
- Empty mandarin oranges, pineapple chunks, and cut pear halves into a strainer over the sink. Let the fruit sit in the strainer for 15-20 minutes, tossing the contents periodically. Fruit is ready once it's been thoroughly drained of all excess juice.
- In a large bowl, mix together marshmallows and greek yogurt.
- Pour in the fruit with the yogurt mix and gently toss with a spatula until thoroughly mixed.
- Cover bowl (or move to a sealable container) and chill creamy fruit salad in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. Keep chilled until serving.
Nutrition
I do my best to provide nutrition information, but please keep in mind that I'm not a certified nutritionist. Any nutritional information discussed or disclosed in this post should only be seen as my best amateur estimates of the correct values.
