Sweet Dessert Style Salads

When it’s too hot outside to turn on the oven, simple dishes that don’t require any cooking are the perfect side dish for any barbecue. These salads are also perfect when your oven and stove are too crowded to allow you to make that one extra side dish. Here’s our list of simple sweet, dessert style, salads that require little or no cooking.

1. Glorified Rice

This simple rice salad always made an appearance on my mother’s Easter table. It’s a very simple recipe that’s a good use for cold, leftover rice. When you whip your cream, don’t forget to add sugar and vanilla so that it tastes good.

2. Watergate Salad

This salad only requires 5 ingredients, and is very simple to put together for any occasion. The pecans add extra crunch, but if you don’t have them, or don’t like them, this recipe tastes fine without them. Pecan prices are very high right now, so if money’s tight, I leave them out.

3. Five Cup Salad

As the name implies, this recipe is supposed to be made from 5 cups of ingredients, but since I don’t like leftover bits of fruit hanging around in my refrigerator, I increased the amount of pineapple. The result is a delicious tropical style fruit salad that goes very well with grilled teriyaki chicken, or teriyaki burgers, or just about anything. This salad is always served at our Christmas Eve party, and my brother calls it “Ambrosia.”

4. Lemon Gelatin Fruit Salad

For years, we referred to this as “that cottage cheese thing,” but that doesn’t sound very appetizing. This can be made with any flavor jello and your choice of fruits, but this combination is our favorite. We have even been known to make a summer meal out of it or serve it as dessert with some of those light and simple Maria cookies.