This homemade grape salad recipe could not be more simple with only five ingredients needed! You can make this in about 10 minutes, plus chill time. I love the crunchy fresh grapes pair with sweetened cream cheese and a crunchy nutty topping. To some it may seem like an odd combo but it WORKS and feels very Midwest to me.
Grape salad is one of those dishes that makes me think of big family meals at holidays or potluck dinner or cookout picnics. Of course the word ‘salad’ is being used pretty liberally here. 🙂 It’s a lot like ambrosia salad or watergate salad. It’s not a green, leafy salad it’s more like a lightly sweet fruit side dish.
Related: Next up try my Great Aunt Ina’s strawberry pretzel salad. We sometimes just call this jello salad at my house.
Ingredients
- Red seedless grapes
- Cream cheese, softened
- Greek yogurt
- Brown sugar
- Spiced Walnuts or Pecans
How to make Grape Salad
Rinse off the grapes and remove them from the stem. Set aside to dry.
Stir together the softened cream cheese, greek yogurt, and brown sugar. If you want the creamy mixture to be perfectly smooth, free from lumps, I recommend using an electric mixer and blending the cream cheese by itself first and then blending in the other ingredients. Personally, I don’t think it makes a big difference if there are a few lumps. Call me lazy but once you add the nutty topping it doesn’t really show / look smooth anymore anyway.
Fold the cream cheese mixture in with the grapes so they all get coated. Chop the nuts and sprinkle over the top.
Chill the salad for 30 minutes or more so everything is nice and cold before serving.
Notes and Substitutions
- I like using all red grapes but you could use a mixture of red and green or all green. But I stick with seedless grapes whatever color you choose.
- If you want to lightened this up use reduced fat cream cheese.
- I prefer using greek yogurt but sour cream works just as well.
- I like using spiced (sweet) nuts for the topping but other options include chopped up Snickers (yes! this is more ‘traditional’ or common where I live) or graham crackers.
- If you make this grape salad ahead of time, like the night before you plan to serve it, save the nut topping and sprinkle it on before just before serving.
More Fruit Forward Recipes
- The BEST Fruit Salad
- Fruit Pizza
- Cream Cheese Fruit Dip
- Tomato Burrata
- Cucumber Salad
- Strawberry Caprese Salad
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Ingredients
- 2 pounds red seedless grapes
- 4 ounces cream cheese (softened)
- ½ cup greek yogurt
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup spiced walnuts or pecans
Instructions
- Rinse off the grapes and remove them from the stem. Set aside to dry.
- Stir together the softened cream cheese, greek yogurt, and brown sugar.
- Fold the cream cheese mixture in with the grapes so they all get coated.
- Chop the nuts and sprinkle over the top.
- Chill the salad for 30 minutes or more so everything is nice and cold before serving.
Notes
- I like using all red grapes but you could use a mixture of red and green or all green. But I stick with seedless grapes whatever color you choose.
- If you want to lightened this up use reduced fat cream cheese.
- I prefer using greek yogurt but sour cream works just as well.
- I like using spiced (sweet) nuts for the topping but other options include chopped up Snickers (yes! this is more ‘traditional’ or common where I live) or graham crackers.
- If you make this grape salad ahead of time, like the night before you plan to serve it, save the nut topping and sprinkle it on before just before serving.
Nutrition
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated, using Spoonacular, for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
Whoa, this looks good!
This looks so simple and delicious! I love that it only uses five ingredients but still feels like a special side dish. The crunchy nut topping with the creamy grapes sounds perfect for potlucks or holidays—definitely saving this to try soon.
Digital Marketing Expert
Delicious recipe!
This looks delicious, but as a Swede that has never been to the Midwest; when is one supposed to eat it? As desert? As a side dish (accompanying what?!), as breakfast? You can tell that I’m struggling here in Sweden, but y’all seem so nice in the Midwest that I really want to try out the food!
I am sure this is seems like a very odd dish outside of the Midwest / Southern US. 🙂 For me, this is a side dish I would bring to a BBQ. So it could be served alongside somekind of meat main dish like hamburgers, brisket, BBQ chicken, etc. It’s usually served as a sweet side dish. It is sweet enough to be a light dessert or it could be a sweet breakfast. But where I am from it’s usually served as a side course to the main meal.
Hopefully this is helpful. Do you have any ‘strange’ dishes from Sweden you want to share with us???
Hi there! I live in Luleå (an American married to a Swede) and I am from
Minneapolis and make a version of this grape salad all the time. Everyone asks for it. Although I have eaten this with a meal-great with ham like Frukt Salad-this winds up as part of our dessert selection-sort of like eating Gino (fresh fruit with melted white chocolate melted over it-yummy!)-something Elsie and Emma should try!
As an American-the most unusual but delicious Swedish dish is Flying Jacob. It is a chicken dish with sweet chili, bananas, whipping cream, bacon, Italian Salad seasoning (that is unique to Sweden) covered with chopped peanuts and served over rice. Shockingly delicious. They also love to put bananas on pizza or in tacos! The food in Sweden is really fantastic!