Easy, 4 ingredient Pistachio Fluff Salad, also known simply as Pistachio Salad! Best served with friends and family, this recipe makes a great potluck dish!
Love easy desserts? Our Ambrosia Salad could easily be a side dish too. Or try our cranberry fluff salad!
Why this Pistachio Salad is Best
You are living in a vacuum my friends, if you haven’t yet tried this Pistachio Fluff Salad.
Some people call it simply Pistachio Salad, Pistachio Dump Salad, Pistachio Pudding Salad or Watergate Salad. Or Green Fluff. Or just the Green Goop.
Whatever you call it, it’s a huge hit at all our family holiday parties and potlucks.
Pistachio Fluff Salad is only 4 ingredients (5 if you count the cherries on top)! I know many people add extra nuts to theirs, but not us. Occasionally I’ll swap out the mini white marshmallows and use the fruity, colored mini marshmallows instead.
Any party is a great time to whip up a batch of this pistachio salad. I know I keep calling this a salad when it clearly is more like a dessert. But after all, Mom always said to eat your greens, haha!!
Change things up and try our lemon fluff next!
Ingredient Notes
Easy as 1,2,3. And four if you’re counting ingredients!
- Crushed Pineapple- you’ll need a can of this, with the juices (do not drain). Fresh pineapple is not the same here.
- Pistachio Pudding Mix- two of the small boxes of instant pudding mix are perfect.
- Cool Whip- you don’t want to use homemade whipped cream here, as it will tend to get too weepy. However, if you don’t want to use Cool Whip, try our stabilized whipped cream instead.
- Marshmallows- these create the perfect texture. Whether you use plain mini marshmallow, or toss in the fruity colored marshmallows, either are delicious.
The hardest part of this Pistachio Fluff Salad recipe is giving everything time to mingle. Allowing it to thicken up. You can make it the night before, or whip it up at least 4 hours in advance, making it perfect for holiday gatherings.
If you don’t want to put the cherries on top, you can toss them into the mix. This also makes a beautiful Christmas side dish or dessert with the red cherries and green pudding mixture!
So, tell me, have you eaten pistachio salad before? Do you love it as much as I do?
Looking to use pudding mix in more recipes? Adding a box of pudding to cookies creates the most amazing, soft and chewy, Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies.
Best Salad Recipes
Pistachio Fluff Salad Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 boxes JELL-O Instant Pistachio pudding mix 3.4 ounce each
- 1 can crushed pineapple 20 ounce
- 16 ounce Cool Whip thawed
- 1 bag mini marshmallows 10 ounce
- maraschino cherries for garnish
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine pudding mix with crushed pineapple. Mix with a wooden spoon until pudding mix is blended with pineapple liquids.
- Add in Cool Whip and mini marshmallows. Cover and refrigerate 4 hours, or overnight. Serve with maraschino cherries as a garnish. Or, if desired, add cherries to fluff right before serving. ENJOY.
Notes
- Swap out the cool whip for our homemade stabilized whipped cream instead.
- Store salad in refrigerator for up to 3 days for best results.
Video
Nutrition
Easy, 4 ingredient Pistachio Fluff Salad, also known simply as Pistachio Salad! Best served with friends and family, this recipe makes a great potluck dish!
It looked so delicious, I will try your recipe someday
Waldorf salad has apples, grapes, and mayonnaise. This is Watergate salad, named around the time of the Watergate scandal in Washington-whether it had any connection, I don’t know. We never added the nuts, as there are already pistachios in there. I swear this has been at every potluck dinner I’ve been to since 1975!
My recipe for this is called Watergate salad.
It is called “Waldorf Salad” and the recipe is on the side of the Jello brand pistachio pudding box. It’s an old recipe but still a good one. You can also add nuts, flaked coconut or sprinkles to brighten it up.
Is there anyway to use something more natural than Cool Whip. Could this be made with real whipped cream? I hate all the artificial ingredients and Cool Whip.
Try Truwhip
Would really whipped cream work?
I saw this on Pinterest and remember my mom making this when I was little, and so I made it for my 5 kids. It was just as good as I remember it being and my kids loved it too! Thanks for sharing the recipe! :-))
We call it “Booger Salad”???? Delicious regardless what it is called. Classy here in Canada…
Booger Salad 🙂 OMG!!!
Good Lord!
Can this be made with real whipped cream instead of cool whip? Love your site!
Can you use light Cool Whip for the pistachio fluff or will that make it more watery?
Nope, you can totally use it! I’ve done that many times 🙂
Oops, I left out the chopped pecans!!
We make something similar but it is called Watergate Salad. 1 sm. container sm. curd cottage cheese, drained,
1 box instant pistachio pudding,
1 can crushed pineapple, drained, 1/2 bag (or more) miniature marshmallows,
1 (9 oz.) container Cool Whip, thawed
Sprinkle the dry pudding mix over the cottage cheese in a large mixing bowl. Stir together, until the cottage cheese looks green. Drain the crushed a pineapple, a bit, and stir it into the pudding-cottage cheese mixture. Fold in the marshmallows, and last of all, gently fold in the Cool Whip.
Refrigerate overnight. It is SO yummy!!
This sounds wonderful!
Love this salad. So easy to make.
I accidently got pineapple chunks instead of crushed pineapple, is the juice what really matters?? I don’t want to mess it up, doing it for mother’s day. Please help lol, thank you.
It will still be amazing, as long as the can size is the same 🙂
I trippled the recipe because I’m making it for a large group. The only thing I did differently is only added 2 containers of cool whip to keep the color more green and it turned out great!
I use fruit flavored marshmallows and add flaked coconut
Do I drain the can of pineapple first or just pour the whole can with liquid in there? Thanks!
I know this as Watergate Salad too. It’s at every potluck in the south. I’m in Georgia. I’m wondering what I can substitute for the pineapple w/juice? My boyfriend swears he’s had it without because he doesn’t like canned pineapple. Since you have to mix the pudding with the juice first I need something else. Learned the hard way that pudding and cool whip alone does not work. Any suggestions?
I’ve heard of people making this with canned pie filling or canned mandarin oranges 🙂
I’m wondering if you can make it with the more recent flavor of “watermelon jello?” And if so, could you add bits of watermelon ( squeezing out the excess watermelon liquid)?
If you try it, be sure to stop by and let us know if it works!!
I’ve known it as Watergate salad. I’ve made it several times in the past and the nuts usually come from the pistachio pudding. (Hence the name pistachio) You can do a search for the name Watergate Salad and you’ll find information about some of the origins.
There are also other variations with other pudding mixes and added fruits to make it into different types, e.g. Cherry Fluff. I urge everybody to play around with the puddings and fruits and come up with your own variations.
Do you make the pist pudding according to the directions on the box and then mix it with the crushed pineapple or do you just put the pudding powder mixed with crushed pineapple
Nope, just add the powder mix!