Classic Ambrosia Salad Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What's the ingredients in ambrosia? ›

The best Ambrosia Salad recipe is made with pineapple, mandarin oranges, yogurt, mini marshmallows, coconut and whipped cream. This easy side dish has a delicious tropical sweetness and is always a crowd favorite!

Ambrosia salad, also known as five-cup salad, was popular in Australia in the 70s, but you may consider reviving it as a Christmas dish for its refreshing mix of fruit (usually mandarin and pineapple), marshmallows, coconut and sour cream. It's a Waldorf salad with candy added, I can love that once more.

Most ambrosia recipes contain canned (often sweetened) or fresh pineapple, canned mandarin orange slices or fresh orange sections, miniature marshmallows, and coconut. Other ingredients might include various fruits and nuts: maraschino cherries, bananas, strawberries, peeled grapes, or crushed pecans.

Ambrosia was so named for the food of the Greek and Roman gods. Its region of origin is lost to history. Its ties to the South are strong, though some believe it began in Vermont or elsewhere in New England.

Ambrosia began appearing in cookbooks in the late 1800s when citrus fruit became more prevalent in markets across the United States. These early recipes were very simple, usually including only orange slices, coconut, and sugar layered in a glass dish.

The once hard-to-find ingredients were considered luxurious and exotic. The salad was a treat reserved for holidays and other special occasions, and named “ambrosia” after the food of the Greek and Roman gods. But it wasn't until the early 20th century that ambrosia as we know it came to be.

Oranges & Coconuts: The Original Ambrosia

The earliest written reference to the dish that I've been able to find is in an 1867 cookbook entitled Dixie Cookery: or How I Managed My Table for Twelve Years, which was written by Maria Massey Barringer of Concord, North Carolina.

Some scholars have identified ambrosia as honey while others feel that a type of hallucinogenic mushroom was meant in the myths. Regardless of all this confusion, the word is now used metaphorically to mean anything so fragrant, so delicious that it seems divine — including a popular orange-and-coconut confection.

The ancient Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans were known to consume mixed greens with a combination of salt, oil and vinegar. These early salads were often made with ingredients like lettuce, celery, radishes, and onions, which were considered beneficial for digestion and overall health.

Ambrosia is an attractive medium-sized apple, with a pink-tinged orange/red flush over a yellow background. As such it is very much in tune with the modern preference for "bi-coloured" apples.

What is ambrosia also known as? ›

Ambrosia (plant), a genus of flowering plants in the Asteraceae commonly known as ragweed. Ambrosia beetle, beetles which live in nutritional symbiosis with ambrosia fungi. Ambrosia fungi. Bee bread, also known as ambrosia or bee pollen.

When eaten, ambrosia normally tastes like a pleasant food enjoyed by the consumer. For Percy, it was warm chocolate chip cookies, while for Piper it was the black bean soup her father used to make her.

Ambrosia apples have a thinner skin which means they're easy to bite into. This is great for the young and old – whether you're wearing dentures or breaking in your brand new teeth – Ambrosia apples are the better choice. For everyone else, the thinner skin just makes eating an Ambrosia apple that much more enjoyable.

Whipped topping, pistachio-flavored instant pudding mix, canned pineapple, mini marshmallows, and chopped nuts come together to create this light and fluffy American classic that's beloved by home cooks everywhere, not just in the South, but the Midwest as well.

Ambrosia apples are part of a healthy diet but they also have specific properties that help to boost the immune system. For example, Ambrosia contain Quercetin. This flavanoid, like other antioxidants, supports immune efficiency by fighting off free-radicals.