Yum Yum Salad (Amish Salad Recipe) - Amish Heritage (2024)

When serving guests, a typical meal will usually consist of some kind of potatoes, meat, a vegetable, salad (such as layered lettuce salad, broccoli cauliflower salad, or cole slaw), jello salad, homemade bread or rolls, and dessert. And possibly a side dish of buttered noodles as well.

Jello Salad or Dessert?

I have often wondered why creamy jello dishes such as yum yum salad and grape dreamsicle salad are called jello salad instead of jello dessert. Salad is supposed to be healthy, right? And I don't know who decided to call this not-so-healthy dish a salad and serve it as a side dish.

But seriously, it goes well as a side dish with the first course. And I never turn it down, because it's just that good!

I mean, you get to eat dessert with the first and second courses. And if we're being honest, most of us love dessert.

But you can feel free to call this yum yum jello dish a salad or a dessert. And it doesn't matter if you eat it as a side, dessert, or afternoon snack. It's delicious! So just enjoy it, no matter what you decide to call it.

Orange Jello Salad Recipe or Strawberry Jello Salad Recipe

This yum yum salad recipe can easily be made into different flavors.

Simply use orange jello to make orange jello salad or substitute it with strawberry jello to make strawberry jello salad. Or you can use whatever flavor you prefer, as long as it pairs well with pineapple.

How to Make Orange Yum Yum Salad

This yum yum jello salad is very easy to make and does not take very long to put together. However, you will need to allow a few hours for the jello to set.

Place the water, sugar, and pineapple into a saucepan and bring it to a boil. Let it boil for about five minutes. Then remove it from the heat and add the jello. Stir until dissolved and cool.

If you're in a hurry to get this finished, you can set your pan of jello into a bowl of ice water. It helps to speed up the cooling process.

But you'll need to wait to add it to the creamy mixture until it is well chilled and starting to jel. And then it will probably still need at least two hours in the refrigerator to finish setting.

(Note: The other day I made the jello part and set it in the fridge to cool. Something else came up, and I couldn't finish it on the same day. So I covered the jello mixture and left it in the fridge overnight. It was completely set before I got to add it to the creamy part. But it still worked fine.)

For the creamy part, beat the cream cheese and add heavy whipping cream. Mix on low and scrape the sides of the bowl. Then increase the speed and whip until thickened.

After the cream has thickened, add the jello mixture and beat until well combined. Chill until firm.

Heavy Whipping Cream or Cool Whip?

I prefer heavy whipping cream over Cool Whip in almost any recipe. But if you prefer Cool Whip, you can substitute it for the heavy cream.

Cool Whip is more stabilized than whipping cream. So if you're taking this jello dish to an outdoor picnic, where it might be sitting in the heat for a while, using Cool Whip might be a better choice.

But do not overbeat after adding the Cool Whip since it will get runny if beaten too long. You may want to gently fold the jello mixture into the creamy part instead of beating it.

Orange Fluff Salad

In one of my Amish cookbooks, there's a recipe that's almost exactly like this yum yum salad, but it's called orange fluff salad. And it includes mandarin oranges.

So if you like mandarin oranges, feel free to add a can of well-drained mandarin oranges. I would fold them in at the end.

If you like this Yum Yum Salad with Jello, perhaps you'd also like to try my Layered Ribbon Jello Salad Recipe

I'm leaving a couple of affiliate links to Jello Molds in case you're interested. The Amish (at least when I was growing up) love to put jello salads into pretty molds to make them look fancy.

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Jel-Ring Jello Mold Holiday, Small 2 1/2 Cups

Plastic Dessert Molds with Lids, Reusable Cups for Jello, Gelatin, Ice Cream

Jel-ring Jello Mold,6 Cups