Frog Eye Fruit Salad – the best fruit salad EVER using acini de pepe pasta (aka frog eyes) and a yummy sauce mixed with pineapple, mandarin oranges, marshmallows and Cool Whip. A family favorite!
Question for you – is a fruit salad a bunch of fresh fruit chopped up in a bowl? Or is a fruit salad a creamy concoction that has Cool Whip, marshmallows and coconut and a little bit of fruit?
I choose the latter. The creamy version is MUCH better. 😉
Maybe you’ve heard of this fruit salad…or maybe not…but I had to share it!
Frog Eye Fruit Salad contains the small little pasta called Acini de Pepe which looks like little eyes – hence the name! Plus is has a creamy sauce mixed with fruit and marshmallows. SO YUMMY. I’ve made this salad a million times and it’s always a hit.
When Father’s Day, Easter, Christmas, just about any special occasion comes around, this is the fruit salad I make. Everyone loves it!
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 2/3 cup pineapple juice
- 1 egg well beaten
- 1 tsp. lemon juice
- 1 cup Acini de Pepe pasta
- 2 8-oz cans mandarin oranges, drained
- 1 20-oz can crushed pineapple, drained
- 1 20-oz can pineapple tidbits, drained
- 1 cup miniature marshmallows
- 1 8-oz carton non-dairy whipped topping (Cool Whip), I use Lite
Instructions
- Combine sugar, flour and salt in a saucepan. Stir pineapple juice into beaten egg then into the sugar mixture. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice. Set aside to cool.
- Cook Acini de Pepe in 3 quarts of boiling water for 6-8 minutes, stirring often. Drain and rinse.
- Combine cooked sauce with cooked Acini de Pepe. Cover and chill in refrigerator.
- When cool, stir in the well drained fruit, marshmallows and whipped topping. Chill at least one hour before serving. ENJOY!!
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This salad looks sooo delicious. It looks much too elegant for it’s name although it is cute. I have eaten a similar one without the pasta so I will have to try your recipe.
This does look creamy. After a big holiday meal, I like a lighter dessert. Good idea…those little frog eys. Thank you for sharing this.
We may have met by chance…but we become friends by choice.
http://simpleesue.com/french-toast-grilled-cheese-sandwich-with-an-italian-twist/
Sue Boyer from UT?
I love tapioca. We have a link party called Wednesdays Adorned From Above Blog Hop and would love to have you share this and any other posts with everyone. It runs from Tuesday night through midnight Sunday. Here is the link to the party.
http://www.adornedfromabove.com/2013/04/wednesdays-adorned-from-above-blog-hop.html
We hope to see you there.
Debi and Charly @ Adorned From Above
I love this salad! My mother-in-law makes it for most holidays, but we call it Aunt Sharon Salad because its a recipe from her sister! Although she doesn’t use the marshmallows.
I’m pinning this!
It does look good but wondering if the Acini de Pepe pasta is like tapioca and I can’t eat that but maybe would be better with fruit and marshmallows in it. I might have to try it. Thanks for sharing on Foodie Friends Friday and I hope you join us again next week. Remember to go vote.
Hi Jen,
Our family loves Frog Eye Fruit Salad! Your recipe is awesome and thank you so much for sharing it at the table with Full Plate Thursday.
Hope to see you again soon!
Miz Helen
Yikes! I’m not sure i could get past the look of it to eat it 🙂 Haha
Thank you for linking to Raising Imperfection.
Please come back Friday to see if you were featured. 🙂
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I love salads like this, and I’ll definitely have to give this one a try! It would be perfect for hot summer days! Thanks so much for sharing at Time to Sparkle Tuesday : )
xoxo Liz
This looks so light and airy! Love it.
This looks amazing! I have had frog eye salad in the past and loved it but this looks over the top! I just pinned. Thanks so much for sharing such a fabulous recipe 🙂 Krista @ A Handful of Everything
Congratulations!
Your recipe is featured on Full Plate Thursday this week. Hope you have a great weekend and enjoy your new Red Plate.
Come Back Soon!
Miz Helen
I love this salad-thanks for reminding me and with a great pic!! Visiting from Cast Party Wednesday!!!
Hugs-Kari/sourdourghnative.blogspot.com
I love this salad! We used to make it in a restaurant I worked in! YUM!
I have never heard of this, but my mom made something similar when I was a kid minus the pasta. Can’t wait to try it. I chose it as my Foodie Friends Friday host favorite this week, so it will be featured on Daily Dish magazine Monday.
This sounds interesting. Thanks for sharing on Foodie Friends Friday and I hope that you will join us again next week.
I have a recipe somewhat similar to this that we call Ambrosia in our family – this looks fabulous!
This looks delicious, Jen! I love the addition of pasta!? Who knew!!
This looks delicious however it looks like it has coconut and I didn’t see it in the recipe
You caught me – I think I added it to the fruit salad in the picture because it looked pretty on top! 😉 You can certainly add it if you’d like!
Looks appetizing. So vibrant and yumy!
Hello! I am planning on making this for a BBQ/ camping trip. Do you think this would this be ok for a couple days in a cooler?
Another question. If I don’t add lemon juice does it affect it a lot?
I’ve never tried it without the lemon juice but I’m thinking it would probably be okay if you left it out. It just adds a little extra flavor. I usually use the lemon juice concentrate. I hope you like it!
I think it would be okay in a cooler, you just need to restir before serving each time. Enjoy!
This stuff is so good, but the recipe I make calls for instant sugar free vanilla pudding instead of the egg. No raw eggs that way. 🙂
Oh! The egg isn’t raw in this, Krista! You cook a homemade pudding-like mixture on the stovetop and the egg is in that, which gets mixed in with the pasta and cool whip. I hope you give this version a try some time! 🙂
Pasta; 1 cup cooked or uncooked?
Uncooked pasta!
Thank you for offering this recipe. 25 years ago, the recipe on the Creamette box required 1 can of fruit cocktail and/or 1 can of canned grapes instead of the pineapple chunks that you stated. Since I didn’t like fruit cocktail or canned grapes, I replaced them with fresh grapes which I halve after cleaning.
Also, I add one cup of marshmellows to the pudding mixture and Acini de Pepe while it is chilling. They absorb some of the delicious sauce. When I combine the grapes, oranges and pineapple, I add another cup of marshmellows. The extra marshmellows will absorb remaining juice from the fruit. ( After initial draining, II drain them overnight in the refrigerator while the pasta and pudding is also being chilled.)
I don’t use an artificial whipped cream; I whip up real whipping cream and fold it in right before serving. Having the fruit chilled reduces the ‘melting’ of the real whipped cream. If I have any leftover, I add just enough marshmellows to the bottom of the storage bowl to absorb any more juice liquids.
I didn’t follow the recipe exactly. I don’t care for marshmallows, so I served them on the side. Also, I zested the lemon and added it to the custard. This is a really good fruit salad!
Lemon zest is such a good idea! I’m glad you liked the fruit salad!
love this dessert…wasnt sure of the name, but its delicious! any time of the yrar
It’s SO good, despite the weird name!