Frozen Cranberry Salad – Easy Cranberry Salad with Cool Whip

This delicious make ahead frozen cranberry salad is perfect for the holiday season. With a can of whole cranberry sauce, sweetened condensed milk, crushed pineapple, chopped nuts, and whipped topping, it’s the perfect addition to any festive meal. The best part is that it can be up to a couple weeks ahead or time and stored in the freezer.

Ingredients for Frozen Cranberry Salad with Pineapple

• Canned Whole Cranberry Sauce
• Crushed Pineapple, drained
• Chopped Nuts
• Sweetened Condensed Milk
• Cool Whip (whipped topping)

This easy recipe is perfect for your holiday meals, especially Thanksgiving and Christmas. I really enjoy thinking through holiday menus and picking recipes that are down right tasty, but as you know there’s something else to consider.

At my house, the big factor is oven space, refrigerator space and freezer space. I have to make sure I have room to store my prepped and completed dishes and side dishes. Keeping that in mind, I love to use recipes that can be made ahead of time which is exactly why I love frozen cranberry salad with pineapple.

I can make it, wrap it up tightly, and store it in the freezer for several weeks. This also saves me time on the day of the gathering. Woohoo!

How to make frozen cranberry salad?

Step by Step Instructions

1. Drain juices from crushed pineapple. A sieve works great for this step.
2. In a large bowl, combine drained pineapple, cranberries, chopped nuts, sweetened condensed milk. Fold in Cool whip.
3. Pour and spread evenly into a 13 x 9 inch baking dish.
4. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and a tight-fitting lid.
5. Freeze for several hours until solid.
6. To serve, scoop with an ice cream scoop or use a spatula and serve in squares. If desired, let it thaw at room temperature for a few minutes to make it more like mousse.

Storage Instructions

Store leftovers in the freezer, covered tightly for up to 2 weeks.

For the ingredient amounts and recipe steps for frozen cranberry pineapple salad, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

Freezy Cranberry Salad

This “freezy” cranberry salad as it’s lovingly named in my Brown County Cookery Cook Book is just that. It’s a freezer cranberry salad that gives the appearance of almost an ice cream or sorbet.

The cool part of the recipe is that there’s two ways to serve it.

One way is to scoop it up with an ice cream scoop and serve in a bowl or sorbet dish. The other is to cut it into squares where you can see the pretty whole cranberry pieces speckled throughout.

Either way is delicious and fancy!

Recipe FAQs

• This easy cranberry salad is easily made ahead of time. Store it in the freezer, wrapped tightly with plastic wrap and/or a tight fitting lid for a couple weeks. I recommend double wrapping it before freezing if you’re planning to leave it in there for a while. This will prevent ice crystals from forming on your salad.
• This recipe is very forgiving. Feel free to modify it to your own likes.
• Use any baking dish you have at home. Use a couple loaf pans, lined with plastic wrap, for a beautiful, frozen cranberry salad loaf. Serve in slices.

Recipe Variations for Frozen Cranberry Salad

• Use jellied cranberry sauce instead of whole cranberry sauce, if desired.
• Any chopped nut will work. I typically use chopped walnuts or chopped pecans. Omit nuts completely, if needed.
• Serve it in sherbet dishes as a dessert or cut into squares and serve as a salad course.
• Use pineapple tidbits instead of crushed pineapple, if needed. Just be sure to drain all the juices. Or, crush your own pineapple by pulsing it in a food processor.
• To make it a pretty pink color, stir in a box of cherry jello, raspberry jello or strawberry jello mix. Be sure the jello is not prepared.
• Instead of pineapple, add other canned fruits such as mandarin oranges or mixed fruit.
• Add other ingredients such as mini marshmallows and coconut.

Amazon Shopping List

• Whole Cranberry Sauce
• Crushed Pineapple
• Chopped Pecans
• Sweetened Condensed Milk

Kitchen Utensils

• Large Mixing Bowl
• Sieve
• Spoonula
• 9 x 13 Dish with Lid
• Plastic Wrap

Can you freeze cranberry salad?

Yes, cranberry salad can be frozen to eat later, or freeze it and serve it as a frozen cranberry salad.

Can I substitute fresh cranberries for cranberry sauce??

Yes, you can substitute fresh cranberries for the canned cranberry sauce but you’ll need to do a little prep work first. In a medium saucepan, bring 12 ounces of fresh cranberries, 3/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water to a boil. Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Place the mixture in blender, or use an immersion blender to make a jelly. Let the sauce cool, then use it in place of canned cranberry sauce in recipes.

How do you get jellied cranberry sauce out of a can?

Take a butter knife and gently run it around the edge of the inside of the can. Turn the can over, and jiggle it. The entire glob of cranberry sauce should fall right out into the bowl.

Cranberry Recipes

While we traditionally think of cranberries at Thanksgiving, they really are a versatile ingredient that can be used year round. While we love them in sweet desserts like this frozen cranberry salad or these cranberry treasure cookies, we also like them as sauces over our favorite proteins, like turkey and pork chops.

Cranberry Fluff

Turkey Breast with Cranberry Sauce

Baked Cranberry Pork Chops

Cranberry Moscow Mule

Instant Pot Ham with Cranberry Glaze