Pistachio salad is the kind of recipe you can make when Dad pulls in the driveway and still have it on the table before he gets his shoes off. It’s fluffy, creamy, sweet, and ridiculously fast—just stir it together, chill it if you have time, and serve.
Unless you are of a certain age, it's quite possible you've never heard of this pistachio fluff recipe or that it became known as Watergate salad. It's not unusual for a recipe to have a descriptive name. No one can confidently say who hung the name of a government scandal on this perfectly innocent dish, but it happened. Ah, the 70s. It was an odd decade.
You probably remember these "salads" that could certainly step in as a dessert. Snickers Salad, Orange Fluff, Strawberry Pretzel Salad (which I reinvented as easy, fast Strawberry Pretzel Cups). They are still amazing!
Make this fluff for the "fun dish" of a family-friendly budget supper. It's also great to take to a tailgate, a potluck, or a graduation table when you need something easy and a little sweet.
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If you remember to defrost the frozen whipped topping, you can knock out this recipe in about five minutes flat!
1. Empty a twenty-ounce can of crushed pineapple with the juice into a large mixing bowl and stir in one dry 3.4-ounce box of instant pistachio pudding mix. Stir until they are well combined.
2. Next, fold in one eight-ounce carton of defrosted whipped topping like Cool Whip, one cup of miniature marshmallows, and one-half cup of chopped nuts. You can use pistachios or walnuts, but I used chopped pecans this time.
3. If you want to skinny up this salad, you can use sugar-free pistachio pudding and sugar-free Cool Whip, which will still be yummy!
4. You can eat your pistachio fluff immediately, but the flavor improves if you chill it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours or overnight.
If you are feeling fancy, you can fold in some maraschino cherries, but if you do, rinse and dry them thoroughly so they don't bleed and make your pretty salad turn brown. (Green plus red makes brown, think back to watercolors.)
I garnished my serving bowl of pistachio fluff with whole cherries because it was Easter Sunday. I don't think our grandkids had ever seen this salad on the table; the oldest is now 25. It's been a while! It tasted as good as we older adults remembered!
This fluff is also known as Watergate Salad. It's a quick and easy recipe with instant pistachio pudding, crushed pineapple, whipped topping, miniature marshmallows, and chopped nuts. Serve it as a salad or a dessert; the choice is yours!
PREP TIME5 minutes COOK TIME2 hours TOTAL TIME2 hours 5 minutesYes, and it’s even better after it chills for a while. Make it a few hours ahead or the night before, then keep it covered in the refrigerator until serving time.
You could, but Cool Whip is more stable and holds up better, especially if the salad will sit out at a potluck, holiday meal, or graduation table. Homemade whipped cream is softer and will deflate pretty quickly.
Pistachio salad keeps well in the refrigerator for about 3 days. Store it tightly covered and give it a gentle stir before serving.
More dessert-like than a salad, I suspect these "fluffs" may have originated among Lutheran women in Midwestern locales like Iowa or Minnesota. It could have been some of my relatives!
We do love our sweets! To the Midwestern Way of thinking, if you put it on the dessert table, it's a dessert. Do you want it to be a salad? Put it on the salad table!
At one time, this "salad" was also known as "Funeral Salad" and even "Shut The Gate Salad" because it is so fast and easy that mom could whip it up when dad pulled in from work and shut the gate. It's still a popular dish at potlucks
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Love GB (Betty Streff)
Real food. Real kitchen. Real easy.
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