Fruit Salad With Vanilla Pudding
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Made with an assortment of juicy fruit combined with creamy vanilla pudding, you’re going to love this easy 3-ingredient fruit salad recipe.
This recipe for fruit salad with vanilla pudding is absolutely delicious and Mama and I have been enjoying it for over 20 years. A friend on a diet passed on the recipe back in the day and she called it “super fruit salad”, so that’s what we’ve always called it. We make ours with no added sugar and it ends up counting as a fruit in most diets but with a lot more flavor and variety than eating a single banana or an apple.
This fruit salad recipe with vanilla pudding is just so stinking good, so stinking easy, and if you choose your ingredients right you can reduce the sugar compared to normal fruit salads. The three simple ingredients we’re using are canned fruit cocktails, canned mandarin oranges, and vanilla pudding. The instructions are just as simple. All we need to do is make the vanilla pudding (which we mix with the canned fruit juice to make it into an extra flavorful vanilla sauce) and combine it with the canned fruit. It will take like 5 minutes.
The only downside is you need to refrigerate the fruit salad for several hours before enjoying it, so all those flavors mingle together and the fruit soaks up that creamy vanilla pudding. But let me tell you, this fruit salad is worth the wait. Ready to make my easy fruit salad recipe? Let’s go!
Recipe Ingredients
- Sugar-free instant vanilla pudding mix
- No-sugar-added fruit cocktail (any kind)
- No-sugar-added fruit of your choice (I’m using mandarin oranges)
How to Make Fruit Salad With Vanilla Pudding
Drain all of the juice from your cans into the bowl.
Like this.
Pour your dry pudding mix over the top of it.
Stir that up really good with a wire whisk.
You can also just shake all of this up in a quart-sized mason jar or even mix it up with an electric mixer if you want. This recipe can be prepared according to your mood.
If you end up with a few lumps, don’t worry about them. Once this has set for a while, you can stir the fruit up again and the lumps will go away easily.
They also taste pretty good if you get a hold of one on your spoon.
Dump in your fruit.
Stir that up well.
Cover and refrigerate for several hours.
I like to leave it overnight to let the flavors mingle together.
DEVOUR!
If you’ve never had fruit salad with vanilla pudding before, you’re gonna be surprised at how good it is.
Storage
If you just use canned fruit in your fruit salad, it will last up to 1 week when stored in an airtight container in the fridge. However, if you opt to throw in some fresh fruit, it will only last about 2 to 3 days.
Recipe Notes
- Other canned fruit options rather than mandarin orange segments include peaches and pineapple chunks.
- While I’m using sugar-free and no-sugar-added options, you don’t have to.
- For a burst of citrus flavor, add the lime zest or lemon zest from 1 lime/lemon, or 2 tablespoons of lemon juice or lime juice.
- For a sweet touch, add 1 cup of miniature marshmallows.
- Feel free to change up the pudding flavor as well. Butterscotch pudding would be perfect for fall.
Recipe FAQs
What other fruit can I add to my fruit salad?
Feel free to add some frozen fruit or fresh fruit to your salad, such as a chopped apple, sliced strawberries, chopped grapes, blueberries, or sliced bananas. Opt for about 2 cups overall. Just keep in mind that the fruit you add will most likely lessen the amount of time this stays good in the fridge.
How do you serve fruit salad?
This is a crowd-pleasing dessert as is. However, you can also serve the fruit salad topped with Cool Whip or whipped cream, spooned over vanilla ice cream or plain Greek yogurt, or with a slice of pound cake.
I think you’ll also enjoy these fruit salad recipes:
Fresh Fruit Salad With Honey Lemon Dressing
Aunt Cathie’s Southern Grape Salad
Ingredients
- 2 10-ounce cans no-sugar-added fruit cocktail
- 1 12-ounce can no-sugar-added mandarin oranges
- 1 1-ounce box sugar-free instant vanilla pudding mix
Instructions
- Drain juice from all cans into a medium bowl. Pour pudding over the top and stir with a wire whisk until smooth.2 10-ounce cans no-sugar-added fruit cocktail, 1 12-ounce can no-sugar-added mandarin oranges, 1 1-ounce box sugar-free instant vanilla pudding mix
- Dump in fruit and stir until well combined.2 10-ounce cans no-sugar-added fruit cocktail, 1 12-ounce can no-sugar-added mandarin oranges
- Cover and refrigerate for several hours before serving.
Nutrition
A few years back I did a post with more diet-friendly and lower recipes called the Lighter Side Of Southern. Click here to visit that post.
Dolly Parton on responding to critics and people who gave her a hard time:
“I didn’t listen to any of those people, I never do.
I simply chose to toss their negativity onto the express train that ran
in one ear and out the other.”
~Dolly Parton
I clicked over from today’s email. I have made a version of this fruit salad for years. It is an absolute must at all family get togethers per requests from my granddaughter. My original recipe called for instant lemon pudding and an undrained can of pineapple tidbits, but no other liquid. I amost aways add one to two chopped apples for crunch. Bananas are very good but tend to turn brown if vanilla pudding is used instead of the lemon. I really enjoy reading your blog and have both your books.
Christy, I am 75 years young, have cooked for the past 65 years, but I have learned so much from you. I just love everything about you. God Bless.
This is my husband’s favorite! We also must have it at every holiday meal or deal with disappointed nieces which no one would want to do! I have never thought about making it sugar free-thanks for the tip.
Did I read that fruit salad right? a total of 17 cans of fruit?
Oh merciful no! You choose the other can of fruit and I was just telling you about how many ounces it needed to be. That’s a lot of canned fruit, but I’d sure eat it if I could afford to use that much in one recipe!
Scrolled to the Dolly Parton statement….that really made my day…!!!! I’m going to save it & carry it with me, AND add to my emailing.. I love her quote!! Thank YOU!!!
🙂
I love the sound of this Sugar Free Recipe. My husband, mother, friend and mother in law are diabetic and this sounds like a great thanksgiving dessert. I have a question about the dessert. What would happen if I added low fat cottage cheese to this recipe? Would it ruin the recipe or would it add texture?
I also like this recipe for my non diabetic guests. I can always top it with shredded coconut and pecans.
Thank you!
I’m not sure. I believe if it were me, I’d have cottage cheese on the side and spoon the super fruit over it for folks who wanted it. But I may be overly paranoid because my mother absolutely hates cottage cheese and I love it 😉
Christy, I can’t find the option to save this recipe to my recipe box. Am I overlooking it somewhere? I printed it, but sometimes it’s just easier to pull up my recipe box on the computer.
Thanks for everything you do to make our lives a little easier.
Janette
Hey Janette! So good to hear from you!
Unfortunately, Ziplist closed very suddenly December 10th, after being bought out by Conde Nast. They sent out several emails to users (they are probably in your spam folder) but pretty much pulled the rug out from under us without any options, so the recipe box doesn’t exist anymore. If I can find an option that will work in the future, I’ll definitely implement it but so far the only safe and reliable options are ones that cost money to use.
For now, I’m afraid printing is our only option but I appreciate you sticking with me anyway!
Gratefully,
CJ
Thank you, Christy, for your quick response. I would never leave you – love you too much! I will continue to print and share on FaceBook so I won’t lose any of your great recipes. I am making something different so much lately that my husband thinks I am finally learning to cook. We’ve only been married for 53 years. Never too late to learn, I guess.