Easy Frog Eye Salad Recipe (With Video!)

Frog eye salad is like the dessert salad rendition of classic nostalgia. It’s one of those cold creamy salad recipes with a sweet pop of flavor and enough fruit to make it one of the best summer, spring, and Easter side dishes ever.

Taking a walk down memory lane, you may recall the yummy Watergate salad of the ’70’s. I have fond memories of my sweet grandma showing up with her famous concoction. Now I like whipping up my yummy strawberry pretzel salad and strawberry cheesecake salad, alternating with this delicious recipe.

You’ll definitely want to put this one in the spring and summer rotation!

Let’s make this!!

What I Love About This Recipe

• Kids of all ages adore this!
• Totally flexible recipe.
• Light-n-fluffy texture.

How To Make Frog Eye Salad Recipe

Whipping up this frog eye salad is so super simple. Remember it requires overnight refrigeration so plan accordingly!

1. Add cooked pasta to the pudding mixture and fold gently until combined. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
2. When ready to serve, add cold fruit, cool whip, mini marshmallows, and coconut to the pasta mixture and fold to combine.
3. Serve in a large bowl or individual serving dishes.

**See the full instructions below.

Frog Eye Salad Recipe + Ingredient Notes

• Chilling: You’ll want to blend your pudding mixture with your acini di pepe and let it firm up in the fridge overnight. Chill your fruit in a separate container overnight in the fridge so it’ll all be cold and creamy when you serve it.
• Acini de Pepe – To cook it, you’ll boil a big pot of water, with just a touch of salt, just like you would when cooking any other type of pasta. The difference for this particular recipe is that I’m going to break all the rules and laws when it comes to cooking pasta and tell you to overcook it.
  • Yes, this is one of the few times I suggest cooking the pasta past al dente since I want it to be nice and soft in this salad. We’re NOT looking for mushy here, but you want to boil it for a good 10 minutes to make sure the final texture adds to the creamy consistency of the salad instead of creating that “bite” you’re usually after when you cook pasta. Once it’s perfect, rinse it under cold water to preserve that texture without going into the soggy froggy zone.
  • Serving up this sweet salad doesn’t require any crazy ingredients. The acini di pepe may sound out of the ordinary but it’s really quite common. It’s a small pasta similar to couscous which is often used in soups and salads.
• Pineapple Juice: You’ll want to reserve the juice from your crushed pineapple because you’ll use it to blend up your vanilla pudding. It is Ah-ma-zing!

Storing + Freezing + Make-Ahead

• How Long Can You Keep This In The Fridge? Your sweet delicious salad will keep for 3-4 days in the fridge once it’s assembled and ready to go.
• Can You Freeze This? Unfortunately, frog eye salad doesn’t freeze well but it’s so incredibly simple to make you really don’t need to think about freezing it. It only takes a few minutes to assemble and you’re on your way to creamy dreamy bliss!
• Make-Ahead Tips: Since you need most ingredients chilled before blending together, it’s easy to split this into steps. Simply slide your pasta/pudding mixture into the fridge along with your fruit in a separate container. They can be prepped a day or two ahead of time. When you’re ready to serve, pull it out, and blend it all together with the other goodies. Easy Peasy! Just remember after the pasta is cooked, the pudding mixture is made, and the canned fruit is opened, it will last a total of 3-4 days.
• Storing Tips: I prefer to blend the acini di pepe with the pudding and store it separately from the mixed fruit in the fridge. Then, I mix it all together and add the other goodies just before serving time.

Serving Recommendations

I like to serve this with a dollop of whipped cream topped with a maraschino cherry. My Grandma always had an extra jar of them in her pantry so every grandchild got one on top of their dessert.

Serve with more of my favorite warm weather sides like KFC coleslaw, pasta salad with Italian dressing, authentic Hawaiian macaroni salad, Broccoli Salad, and/or 7 Layer Salad.

More Warm Weather Side Dishes

• Strawberry Spinach Salad 
• Classic Macaroni Salad
• Carrot Salad
• Antipasto Salad 
• Cucumber Tomato Salad
• Pea Salad
• Dill Pickle Pasta Salad
• Tortellini salad

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Frog Eye Salad Recipe

Frog Eye Salad is a sweet fluffy rendition of a fruity dessert salad with cool whip, instant pudding and plenty of extras to make you go Mmmm!

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time10 minutes mins

Total Time25 minutes mins

Servings: 12 people

Author: Kathleen

Ingredients

• ▢ 1 cup Acini di pepe
• ▢ 1 (3.5-ounce) box instant vanilla pudding mix
• ▢ 1/2 cup sugar
• ▢ 1 1/4 cups milk
• ▢ 1 (8-ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained with juice reserved
• ▢ 1 (20-ounce) can pineapple tidbits, drained with juice discarded
• ▢ 1 (11-ounce) can mandarin oranges, drained with juice discarded
• ▢ 2 (15-ounce) cans fruit cocktail, drained with juice discarded
• ▢ 3 cups colored mini marshmallow
• ▢ 1 cup shredded coconut
• ▢ 1 (8-ounce) container cool whip thawed
• ▢ Reddi wip

Instructions

• Cook pasta (1 cup) in lightly salted rapidly boiling water for 10 minutes. Drain and rinse in cold water. Drain well.
• In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat together Instant pudding mix (1 box), 1/4 cup of reserved pineapple juice, sugar (1/2 cup), and milk (1 1/4 cups) for 2 minutes.
• Add drained pasta to pudding mixture and fold gently until combined. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
• Place all drained fruit in a bowl or a 1-gallon resealable bag and refrigerate overnight.
• When ready to serve, add cold fruit (1 can crushed pineapple + 1 can pineapple tidbits + 1 can mandarin oranges + 2 cans fruit cocktail), cool whip (1 container), mini marshmallows (3 cups), and coconut (1 cup) to pasta mixture and fold to combine. Serve in a large bowl or individual serving dishes. Top with Reddi Wip if desired.

Fans Also Made:

• 
  Easy Old Fashioned Million Dollar Pie Recipe
• 
  Grape Salad
• 
  Heaven On Earth Cake
• 
  Pineapple Delight

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Notes

1. Chilling: You’ll want to blend your pudding mixture with your acini di pepe and let it firm up in the fridge overnight. Chill your fruit in a separate container overnight in the fridge so it’ll all be cold and creamy when you serve it.
2. Acini de Pepe – To cook it, you’ll boil a big pot of water, with just a touch of salt, just like you would when cooking any other type of pasta. The difference for this particular recipe is that I’m going to break all the rules and laws when it comes to cooking pasta and tell you to overcook it.

• • Yes, this is one of the few times I suggest cooking the pasta past al dente since I want it to be nice and soft in this salad. We’re NOT looking for mushy here, but you want to boil it for a good 10 minutes to make sure the final texture adds to the creamy consistency of the salad instead of creating that “bite” you’re usually after when you cook pasta. Once it’s perfect, rinse it under cold water to preserve that texture without going into the soggy froggy zone.
  • Serving up this sweet salad doesn’t require any crazy ingredients. The acini di pepe may sound out of the ordinary but it’s really quite common. It’s a small pasta similar to couscous which is often used in soups and salads.

3. Pineapple Juice: You’ll want to reserve the juice from your crushed pineapple because you’ll use it to blend up your vanilla pudding. It is Ah-ma-zing!

Nutrition

Serving: 1/12 of the recipe | Calories: 340kcal | Carbohydrates: 65g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 65mg | Sodium: 76mg | Potassium: 250mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 48g | Vitamin A: 41IU | Vitamin C: 4mg | Calcium: 30mg | Iron: 1mg

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