5-Minute Strawberry Jello Salad

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Questions & Reviews

1. Deirdra says:

   I’ve made a version of this for years 🙂 We use orange jello and mandarin oranges – will have to try it w/ the strawberries & banana!
2. Karen says:

   One of my favorites from growing up is the green jello salad. Pistachio pudding dry mix? mix with a container of cool whip, drain a big can of pineapple and add the chunks, add marshmallows?green goodness!!
   “”SALAD””” right!!??
3. Maggie Marriott says:

   I make and am asked to make often, this same jello salad, except that I also add drained, crushed pineapple. The pineapple completes what I have been calling “jello cottage cheese salad. What is so fantastic about this salad, you can use any flavor of jello and add other ingredients, such as different fruits, canned or frozen, nuts, and marshmallows (for kids). It is always a big hit at each meal I serve it with. My main ingredients are: cool whip, jello, cottage cheese and crushed pineapple. I then add the other ingredients, as desired. The pineapple gives it a citrus flavor and mellows the sweetness of the jello and cool whip. Oh, and always mix the jello with the cool whip before adding the other ingredients. As you can tell, I love this recipe!
4. Nettie Sorenson says:

   Great ideas!
5. Tracie says:

   I love this salad – I make it all the time and use a can of drained crushed pineapple and a can of cherry pie filling for fruit. I never thought to use strawberries and bananas! Great idea – thanks for sharing all your wonderful recipes!
6. Happy Valley Chow says:

   That is a beautiful jello salad, definitely want to try this! Perfect summer side 🙂
7. Christa says:

   This looks easy and good. Pinning so I can make it this summer. Thanks for the idea
8. carol black says:

   Thanks for sharing this recipe, fast and good is key. Enjoy your page

   Thanks for posting this recipe, fast and good is always the key. Really enjoy your page.
9. Chantel says:

   I’ve had this salad my entire life and it was always my favorite thing that my mom made when I was little. I used to want to eat the entire bowl myself. We always put mandarin oranges in it as well. I actually made this salad for a neighborhood party this last weekend. yummy!
10. Kathy says:

    When you say “container of Jello” it could confuse some people. You do mean a 4 ounce box of dry Jello powder, right?
11. Jonna says:

    IMy grandmother used to make this and I thought I was the only one who liked cottage cheese in with Jello. Yum I am going to make this tonight. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
12. Pam C says:

    I just made this recipe for my diabetic mother with sugar free jello. I*t was great-thanks!
13. Jewel says:

    love your recipes!!!!!
14. Wendy says:

    Love this! We also use orange jello and mandarin oranges.
15. MarleneHouse says:

    This works out really well using orange jello and mandarin oranges in place of the strawberries and strawberry jello. Is like eating orange sherbet.
16. Qurat Ul Ain Desai says:

    Please can you tell what is cool whip? Thanks
17. Beachgrammy says:

    My Mom’s recipe is almost like this. It is my go to for quick easy and delish! We use fruit cocktail, small curd cottage cheese, cool whip, sour cream and jello. I use small containers of everything for a small family meal, or large containers if I’m taking it for potluck!! We call it Pink Salad!! Will have to try yours!
18. Rachel says:

    This has been a family favorite since I was a little girl. We call it “Pink Salad”. We make this using crushed pineapple and mandarin oranges instead of the strawberries and bananas. One tip, mix your jello with the cottage cheese and that way you don’t have to worry about mixing your cool whip too much as sometimes it will lose it’s “whip”.
19. Pam Kellogg says:

    I make this with suger free jello, low-fat cottage cheese fresh fruit, [ when in season ] or no sugar added canned fruit , and sugar free cool whip . It taste great and you can’t tell it’s made with sugar free ingredients.
20. Bev T says:

    My mother in law made this a lot! But instead of strawberries and bananas, she used pineapple. The kids loved it and always called it Grandma’s pink stuff.
21. Melissa says:

    are you talking about a box of jello dry mix or that premade stuff
22. Leona says:

    Our family has been making this for years, but didn’t know the name. We always call it ‘pink stuff’.
23. Cyd says:

    Use the 4 ounce box of jello. No premade stuff.
24. Cyd says:

    Cool whip is an imitation whipped topping. It is located in the freezer section of your store.
25. Cyd says:

    Yes, a 4 ounce box of dry jello powder. We changed it so that it won’t be so confusing. Thanks!
26. Ellicia says:

    I had forgotten about these salads. My aunt used to make this back in the late 70’s. Behind her back, her kids used to call it the Pepto salad or the pink barf because of the texture. However, that didn’t keep them from eating it up down to the last spoonful.
27. Rhonda P. says:

    We’ve made another version of this “salad” for years, since my aunt introduced us to it. We use fruit cocktail, small box of orange flavored jello, cottage cheese, cool whip and top it with walnuts. Can’t wait to try it with strawberries!!
28. Chrissy says:

    Our family made this with red or green gelatin powder, drained crushed pineapple, whipped topping, and cottage cheese. My mother knew I liked it and made it even as I got older. There’s something about the texture of the cottage cheese in the whipped topping. Thanks for reminding me of it.
29. heather curtis says:

    I made this for my family. We have 7 children so I doubled the recipe!! Turned out great.
30. ERIN says:

    I have made the same version as Deirda. It is one of your signature dishes when we go to parties. We love it and can’t get enough of it.. I will have to try it the Strawberry version except I will not add the banana.
31. Jennifer says:

    About how many servings does this make? I am helping put on a bridal shower and will need to make a LOT.
32. Heather says:

    I know this might seem like a silly question, but can I substitute Reddi whip in place of cool whip for any of your recipes that require it?
33. Cyd says:

    Not sure how comparable Reddi Whip is to Cool Whip. You may have to check out the ingredients and consistency to see how close they match.
34. Monica says:

    I made this and I think it would be great for a wedding/baby shower, potluck or a funeral brunch.
35. Angela @ Honey, I Shrunk the Mom says:

    5 minute Jell-O salad saved my booty today when I didn’t plan ahead for a family reunion. Whipped this baby up in 5 minutes flat. 🙂
36. Pixie says:

    Our family has always made it with raspberry jello with raspberries. DELISH!
37. Tracy says:

    I grew up with this salad and love it! My husband and kids won’t eat it which makes me sad so I never make it. I might have to come over next time one of you make it!
38. Kelle Scott says:

    I, as most of you grew up with this salad except we did this…pistachio instant pudding, cool whip, crushed pineapple, mini marshmallows (optional) and Acini di Pepe macaroni which are really tiny pieces of macaroni that you cook ala dente and add…anyone guess what it called??? FROG EYED SALAD!!! The boys LOVED it and the girls went screaming out of the room!!! O how I love the holidays!!!
39. Debbie says:

    We have been making this for years, ours is called “Heavenly Delight”, thanks for reminding me of this recipe.
40. mf says:

    this recipe is great but instead of strawberrys & bananas i put diced pears
41. Cindy says:

    Oh, I Love this stuff. I call it Pink Fluff. Just recently tried the Orange and Green jello’s in it and they are yummy to. I always put pineapple and mandarin oranges in it. But I have just started adding marshmallows and coconut. I Love It!!! So excited to try the Strawberries and Banana’s. Sounds yummy! :0)
42. Deedee says:

    We use peach Jello and canned peaches. It’s Delish!
43. Norma Wright says:

    Could whipping cream be used? Has anyone tried that?
    In addition, I really dislike cottage cheese. I am wondering if anyone knows of a Jello dish that is yummy like this, with no cottage cheese? (It is too late to do this for the potluck tonite, but as Baptists, we do lots of potlucks!)
44. Maribel says:

    When you add the jello to the cool whip, is it just the powder or the actual jello after it’s done?
45. Cyd says:

    Just add the powder jello!
46. cathey harris says:

    my sis in law and her four sisters said they made this salad in every possible flavor Jello has, and hands down they preferred the orange with the mandarin oranges. Love it
47. James Davis says:

    I can’t find a 4 ounce box of jello. Can I use three 1.4 ounce boxes?
48. Cyd says:

    That should work just fine!
49. Jayma Emrick says:

    Have you ever used frozen berries?
50. Cyd says:

    You would have to be sure they were thawed and drained well. Frozen berries are a little mushier than fresh.
51. Rhonda S Adams says:

    1st… Awesome site… You girls have done a great & outstanding job for the beginner to the more fortunate one’s for their favorite recipe’s…. I’m 60 yrs old and never enjoyed anything to do with the Kitchen growing up. My mother nor my aunt’s ever required my help, but, this recipe was a staple on all dinner tables of all of our family gathering’s. Thank you for allowing and for providing everyone’s replies. So many sound so close to what use to be. Again Thank you.
52. Bob says:

    Frustrated again! Unable to watch the advertisement video on my ipad to then be able to copy the recipe. Sadly….Will not be searching your site anymore due to this problem.
53. Dana says:

    I found I only had peach jello, so I drained four individual packs of diced peaches and added those. It was delicious! I also like marshmallows in mine, but not mini marshmallows. I found ULTRA mini marshmallows (NOT dehydrated) at a bulk food store, and they are perfect!
54. sharon martini says:

    Try adding cream cheese instead of cottage cheese but make sure cream cheese is a room temp. before whipping up with cool whip or use dream whip instead !!
55. jennifer says:

    I still make the pistachio salad!!! I LOVE it!!! I use the cottage cheese with pineapple 🙂
56. jennifer says:

    There’s ALWAYS room for Jell-O!!!
57. Sue's Akorn Shop says:

    Awesome and totally delicious!
58. tina franceschi says:

    Love this salad used all ingredients except I use pineapple cottage cheese instead of the plain. I also add a few chopped walnuts to it, I also add one packet of Knox geletin to give it a little bit of thickness so its not to runny, everyone I’ve made it for loves it. Also u can add a can of fruit cocktail to it, but it must be drained really well
59. Maureen says:

    We always called the green salad made with pistachio pudding “Watergate Salad”. We added mini marshmallows, pineapple chunks, and crushed pecans. It is still one of my husbands favorites! I make a large batch, and he has a bowl every night for desert until it is gone. Of course I love it also…..
60. shirley says:

    I made this last night, it looked excellent. Today it turned watery… what went wrong? is this dish a must eat same day dish?
61. Katy says:

    Can you make this the night before? Will it set up? I wanted to take this to a party but I’m afraid I will have a puddle when I get there(2hrs away but plan to take on ice)
62. janet says:

    I used what was on hand:
    raspberry jello……..drained some mandarin oranges and pineapple tidbits to add. Thought is was too sweet so added about 1/2 c. plain yogurt. Thank you for the idea, it tastes really good.
63. Holly says:

    All I could find at grocery store is a 3 1/2 oz box of jello. Not 4 oz.
64. Cyd says:

    Just use the small box you find at the store. It will work great. When I googled ounces in the small box of strawberry jello, everything came up as 3 ounces. Just be sure it’s the small box and not the large box. Be sure you don’t use the sugar free.
65. Olympia says:

    We always made this too…called it “Pistachio Salad” but we did not drain the crushed pineapple. One of our favorites!
66. Olympia says:

    Really dislike cottage cheese. I would use cool whip or cream cheese instead. So many options for this recipe!! Thanks for posting!
67. Natalie says:

    Does anyone know how many smartpoints this ends up being?
68. Mandy says:

    2 cups boiling water turn off add 8oz cream cheese till it dissolves keep stirring it’s ok if you see small specks of cream cheese drain large can crushed pineapple reserve the juice to make 2 cups cold water stir in to cream cheese stir for 2 min.add drained pineapple and 1 cup chopped pecans set in 9×13 aluminium pan in fridge over night.
69. Norma says:

    How many points are I no thanks is dessert?
70. Deana says:

    Why not sugar free?
71. Chellag says:

    What size cool whip and cottage cheese are you using?
72. Cyd says:

    Scroll down on the post to the recipe and ingredients and all of the measurements are listed.
73. Cyd says:

    You can try sugar free jello in the recipe. We have not yet tried it with Sugar free, so not sure of the outcome and didn’t want her to waste all of those ingredients if it doesn’t taste good.
74. Maxine Arnold says:

    Yes, do use sugar free jello. I do it all the time and it tastes great. It has fewer calories. Great diet dessert if you use sugar free and fat free products.
75. Sandy says:

    I used frozen raspberries. I folded them in very frozen while they are firm at the end. Worked great. They mush up if you let them thaw. I used raspberry jello, bananas, drained pineapple, cottage cheese and frozen raspberries. Be very careful about over whipping your cool whip. You will lose the airiness as I found out once when my daughter-in-law tried to help.
76. Sandy says:

    Did you drain the pineapple? Very important step.
77. Karalynn Freeman says:

    We have used the Cottage Cheese, sugar free jello, pineapple, (crushed that is) for years, and LITE cool whip for years. Lite cool whip reduces the sugar along with sugar free jellow. This is great for Diabetic’s. Pineapple is in its own juice and drained. We have always combine jello and cottage cheese first, using a fork to reduce the size of the cottage cheese curds.
78. Kim H. says:

    As you said, this salad has many variations and many names! My family always called it “pink” salad as we would use raspberry or strawberry jello but we make it with 2 cans of fruit cocktail and one can of pineapple tidbits! The cottage cheese and cool whip are the same! And yes we used to primarily use sugar free jello in ours and it was always delicious! But the fun thing is with the fruit cocktail you can easily change up the jello flavor/color to whatever you want!
79. Karen says:

    Can you use ricotta instead of cottage cheese the the jello salad? Thanks
80. Momma Cyd says:

    We haven’t used ricotta cheese in this salad, Cottage cheese is probably best.
81. Stephanie Sands says:

    Can you make the5 min jello salad the night before?
82. Camille Beckstrand says:

    Yes! This will work just fine if you make it the night before – just give it a good stir before serving!
83. Momma Cyd says:

    Yes, you can make this the night before.
84. Darlene Lemons says:

    Love this recipe. Make it often. I use sugar free Jello, lite Cool Whip and 1% cottage cheese. Sometimes use pineapple and mandarins oranges. Always use pecans.
85. Marilyn says:

    What can be subbed for the cottage cheese—yuck?
86. Greg says:

    I’m going to make this as it sounds delicious but I have a question. It says to use 4oz of strawberry jello but at the store the jello boxes only come in 3oz or 6oz packages. Do I need to get the 6oz and measure out 4ozs? Or can I just use the 3oz or 6oz package?
87. Momma Cyd says:

    Thanks for catching that. It’s 3 ounces of strawberry Jello. We have fixed the recipe in the post.
88. Claudie says:

    Is it possible to find a conversion into grams instead of ounces on your site? Looks delicious!
89. Momma Cyd says:

    You can easily pull up charts that will do it for you. Super easy. https://www.rapidtables.com/convert/weight/ounce-to-gram.html
90. Dana Martin says:

    One little section above in the article (before the actual recipe) mentions mixing sour cream with the cottage cheese, but it’s never mentioned again. Is this a typo? Or can you add sour cream to this for creaminess, as it mentions?
91. Momma Cyd says:

    Good catch. I’ve updated the post. It should have been whipped cream topping (Cool Whip).
92. Lola says:

    Did anyone actually watch the Youtube video? Cause in the video they put in vanilla pudding, NOT cottage cheese!!! The recipe does not call for vanilla pudding & NOBODY has even mention anything about vanilla pudding, just cottage cheese & other things you can add to it. The picture doesn’t even look like it has cottage cheese in it? Plus you don’t mention how many this serves? I’m sorry, just too confusing for a newbie. Someone who is actually “trying” to learn but can’t read minds or doesn’t want to assume!!
93. Bobbi @ Six Sisters says:

    This recipe is different than our jello fluff recipe on youtube, so the ingredients and directions are slightly different. Both are quick and delicious. This recipe serves 8, however it could be more or less depending on how large the helpings are.
94. Vokomo says:

    What can be substitute for cottage cheese.
95. Bobbi @ Six Sisters says:

    You could try using greek yogurt or whipped cream cheese in place of the cottage cheese
96. Steven says:

    Folks, just use this https://www.thecalcspot.com/calculators/weight.html to convert from ounces to grams : )
97. Marie Nixon says:

    I recommend using small curd cottage cheese. I think that it is very important to remove the ‘words ‘5 Minute’ from the recipe title. It is only a 5 minute recipe IF the fruits are already cut up.. I chose this recipe because I was looking for a fast recipe to make. Once I started making the recipe, by cutting up the strawberries, I realized that it was going to take me alot longer than 5 minutes to make the dessert. I ended up spending 15 minutes just cutting up the strawberries!
98. Chritty says:

    I make this recipe often, i like to pour the can of pineapple in glass pan, and sprinkle jello over it and let it sit for an hour. Makes it very fluffy when cool whip mixed in
99. Kathy says:

    Used to make this all the time when the kids were home, with strawberry jello and can of drained fruit cocktail! They Called it “pink fluff stuff”!!
100. Kathy says:

     We used used cottage cheese, strawberry jello and drained fruit cocktail and the kids called it” pink fluff stuff “. We all love it!!