How do you make a red salad without adding Jello? You use strawberries.
How do you make a red salad taste delicious without adding extra sugar? You use pineapple.
How do you spend 10 minutes putting together a salad that is delicious and festive, but not have to actually do the work on Christmas day? You make this Strawberry Christmas Salad the day before Christmas and store it in the fridge until serving time!
I caution against buying fresh strawberries this time of year. Tis not the season for fresh strawberries, so they are expensive and flavorless. For this salad, I use frozen/thawed strawberries. Won’t those turn mushy once they thaw, you ask? Indeed. That’s exactly what we’re going for here. Mushy strawberries. (Thanks Laura. Merry Christmas to you, too.)
No really. We’re blending the frozen strawberries with some cream – so the mushiness makes no difference and is actually beneficial for making a smoother strawberry cream sauce for this salad.
- 1 cup frozen strawberries, thawed
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 3 apples, any variety
- 1 can pineapple chunks or tidbits in 100% juice, drained
- Place thawed strawberries and heavy cream into a blender.
- Whip until smooth. Set aside.
- Wash apples and chop them into small pieces, putting them into a medium-sized bowl.
- Drain pineapple (saving juice to drink later!) and stir pineapple into the apples. (Fresh chopped pineapple works great too.)
- Pour strawberry cream mixture over the apples and pineapple.
- Stir well. Serve right away or refrigerate until serving.
- Make this ahead of time for convenience!
Feel free to add a little honey, maple syrup, or stevia if you like. We found that this salad is sweet enough for our tastes without adding any sweetener!
We’ve been loving this salad as a tasty add-on to our meals. I think we’ll make this on Christmas Eve to eat with our Christmas breakfast.
Mmmm, fun Christmas-time food. I love this time of year!
Actually, if you live in south Louisiana you can get fresh strawberries. I paid $5 per 1lb box yesterday at Whole Foods for local berries. Worth the price for the delicious treat in December! Won’t get them again for a month or two, until there is an abundance that makes the price reasonable. I happen to have a fresh pineapple sitting on my counter, a handful of apples, and a pint of cream that needs using. But I’ll have to use frozen strawberries since we inhaled the fresh ones already. In addition to fresh strawberries in December, this year we will have an 80 degree, rainy Christmas! I’d rather the warm than cold but my husband thinks otherwise…
I love how your recipes can be made soon after you post them — because I usually have all the ingredients in the freezer or pantry! I’m going to add this to our Christmas Eve breakfast. Thanks for sharing.
Tried this recipe and loved it!!! We will definitely be making this throughout the year too.