This fruit cocktail salad takes less than 5 minutes to prepare and the pastel mini marshmallows make this the perfect salad for Easter.

If you can't find the pastel marshmallows use the white ones. Kind of boring, I know, but the pastel marshmallows are so fun and they just scream Easter to me. I like to include a recipe video along with my recipes towards the bottom of the post, but since this recipe just required to drain some cans and stir together fruit and cool whip, I decided against making a video. In other words, it's stupidly easy.
Jump to:
How is this a Salad?
Us Midwesterners like to serve these types of salads at Holiday and this type of salad is probably something you'd see sitting out at a church potluck. It’s not your typical salad with lettuce, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Usually, these type of fluff salads (another name for them) contains cool whip/whipped topping, canned fruit, and pudding mix. My favorite is Cookie fruit salad because of the fudge striped cookies on top. If you want to go the extra mile you can beat your own heavy cream but I don’t like to do that. Cool Whip is fast and easy and doesn’t get any kitchen equipment dirty besides a spatula.
Ingredients for Fruit Cocktail Salad
2 15 oz cans of canned fruit cocktail packed in water
1 8 oz container of Cool Whip lite
1 cup of pastel mini marshmallows
How to make Fruit Cocktail Salad
- Drain the juice out of the canned fruit cocktail. Reserve ¼ of the fruit cocktail for the top.
- Add fruit cocktail, mini marshmallows, and cool whip to a medium to large sized bowl.
- Stir or fold the cool whip together with the fruit and marshmallows until well combined.
- Serve the salad in a clear glass bowl and flatten the top out with a spatula. Add some extra marshmallows and the reserved fruit cocktail to the top of the salad. This lets people know what is in the salad.
- Makes a total of 10 servings and I used a ½ cup for each serving.
Storage for Leftovers
To keep this salad fresh, please store the leftovers in an air-tight container large enough to fit whatever is left.
Other Fluff Salad Recipes

Please Let Me Know What You Think!
Be sure to leave a review of this recipe and give it a star rating. It lets us know how we are doing and lets others know they should try it!
I would love to see your creations on Pinterest. Upload them and leave a comment on my Pinterest page!
Are you on Instagram? Follow along and TAG US @recipediariesww
Have a Question or General Feedback?
Jump down to the COMMENT section and let us know! We would love to help and also love feedback on all of our posts.
Fruit Cocktail Salad
- Yield: 10 1x
Description
Fruit cocktail salad takes less than 5 minutes to prep and only has 3 ingredients!
Ingredients
2 15 oz cans of canned fruit cocktail packed in water
1 8 oz container of Cool Whip lite
1 cup of pastel mini marshmallows
Instructions
- Drain the juice out of the canned fruit cocktail. Reserve ¼ of the fruit cocktail for the top.
- Add fruit cocktail, mini marshmallows, and cool whip to a medium to large sized bowl.
- Stir or fold the cool whip together with the fruit and marshmallows until well combined.
- Serve the salad in a clear glass bowl and flatten the top out with a spatula. Add some extra marshmallows and the reserved fruit cocktail to the top of the salad. This lets people know what is in the salad.
- Makes a total of 10 servings and I used a ½ cup for each serving.
- Category: Salad
- Method: Stir
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1
- Calories: 95
- Sugar: 10g
- Sodium: 7mg
- Fat: 3g
- Saturated Fat: 3g
- Carbohydrates: 18g
- Fiber: 1g
- Protein: 0g
Ilene says
You listed pudding, but not what kind.
Linda says
With sprinkle of coconut n chopped pecans....yum yum!
★★★★★
Jenna says
Yep they will start turning brown if you make it too early.
Linda says
why might you want to wait to add the bananas? will the bananas and apples turn brown if this is all made the day before?
Rosanna Goode says
how big of a bowl do I need for double recipe
Jenna says
Apples and bananas would be a great addition!
Lisa says
That was apples and bananas on my last post I didn't know emojis didn't stick whoops
Lisa says
My mom made this often, (for sure on thanksgiving) I as welll. Ours had just a bit different twist to it. Like we use reg fruit salad,drained well,and reg whip cream (not w/water and lite)and we add some finely diced,unpeeled, red and 2or3 sliced . Really very yummy.
★★★★★
Jenna says
No longer than a week.
Yaniz Ramos Da Silva says
How long will it hold well in the fridge? Or should I stick left overs in the freezer?