Creamy Grape Salad (Amish Recipe)

Amish Grape Salad

Amish Grape Salad is a sweet and refreshing dish that combines fresh grapes, cream cheese, sour cream, and a few other ingredients to create a sweet and creamy treat that is both delicious and easy to make.

This creamy grape salad is perfect for any potluck, picnic, or family gathering and is sure to be a crowd-pleaser. The combination of juicy grapes, creamy cream cheese, and crunchy pecans makes for a yummy and refreshing dessert.

Grape Salad with Yogurt

Amish grape salad can easily be made with plain Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. And I think it's delicious either way.

Sour cream adds a bit of tartness that is perfectly balanced with the sugar. But I know that some people do not care for sour cream. And if that's you, feel free to use yogurt instead.

Although regular yogurt is a little too thin for this recipe. So I recommend using Greek yogurt to get the thick consistency we're looking for.

And Greek vanilla yogurt would taste great in here as well. Although if using vanilla yogurt, I would add less sugar since it's already sweet.

Cool Whip or Whipped Cream

If you've been following me here for any length of time, you'll know I'm a fan of whipped cream. It tastes so much better than Cool Whip! And I replace Cool Whip with whipped cream in almost any recipe.

However, whipped cream is not as stabilized as Cool Whip. So there are times when I recommend using Cool Whip instead.

For instance, if you're having an outdoor summer picnic, and your dish will be sitting in the heat, I would use Cool Whip. It doesn't take long for whipped cream to start getting thin and runny when it gets warm.

But in most cases, I replace Cool Whip with heavy whipping cream. (Although, if you need to watch your cholesterol, you may want to use Cool Whip instead.)

Of course, Cool Whip is also sweetened, and whipping cream is not. But I find that most desserts are already sweet enough, and I don't miss the extra sugar. But if you prefer really sweet desserts, you can easily add a bit of extra sugar to the whipping cream.

Fresh Grape Salad Recipe

You can use any combination of seedless grapes for this dish. I like to use red and green, but it's okay to use only red grapes as well.

This recipe uses 4 lbs. of grapes. And Walmart sells seedless grapes in approximate two-pound packages. So I bought two packages and didn't even bother weighing them. There may have been more or less than four pounds of grapes, and that's ok. It doesn't have to be exact.

After washing the grapes, you'll want to make sure that they are dry before adding them to the creamy mixture. Otherwise, your dish will end up runnier because of the extra water.

I wash and drain the grapes and then lay them on a dish towel to dry, while I prepare the cream cheese mixture.

And you can leave them whole or cut them in half. When using large grapes, I actually prefer them cut in half. And if you're serving this dish to kids, I recommend cutting the grapes in half since whole grapes can be a choking hazard.

The dish may end up slightly runnier with halved grapes because of juice from the grapes, but there's not much difference.

Grape Salad with Pecans

The pecans and brown sugar are optional toppings. But they sure do add great flavor and texture. So I highly recommend sprinkling the top with a bit of brown sugar and plenty of coarsely chopped pecans.

This recipe makes a large bowl full. And it's up to you if you want to top the whole dish of grape salad, or if you want to leave them as optional toppings for each individual bowl. In case there's someone with a nut allergy, they'd probably appreciate it if you left it optional.

Raw pecans are great with this fresh grape salad. But if you want to take it up another notch, try toasting the pecans. It adds an extra depth of flavor and crunch.

Is it Grape Salad or Grape Dessert?

What qualifies some desserts to be called salad and be served as a side dish instead of dessert?

When talking about salads, I think most of us probably think about leafy greens or dishes such as Seven-Layer Lettuce Salad, Broccoli Salad, or Coleslaw. And those are healthier salads than dishes like my Orange Yum Yum Jello Salad or this creamy Amish grape salad.

Nonetheless, these dishes are called salads as well. And I've often wondered why.

But I have finally concluded that any vegetable, fruit, or cold dish with small pieces of food that are covered in a dressing of some kind is called a salad. Therefore, since the grapes are covered in a creamy dressing, it qualifies as a salad. 🙂

Now it's up to you if you want to serve this dish as a salad or a dessert. It works well as either one. Although, I still tend to think of creamy grape salad as a dessert.

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