Easy Mandarin Orange Jello Salad with Cottage Cheese

Whip up a family favorite orange Jello salad with simple ingredients like cottage cheese, mini marshmallows, and whipped cream. This easy recipe is the perfect side dish for holidays and family gatherings!

I'm not sure I can ever remember a holiday family dinner without some sort of Jello mold or Jello salad, whether it was lime, strawberry or mandarin orange Jello salad.

It's always just a given that everyone's favorite retro side dish or dessert will be sitting there on the table; and by the time dinner is over, that orange fluff (or lime or strawberry) will pretty much be obliterated.

And if you don't like the texture of cottage cheese in your Jello salad, you can always make my strawberry fluff recipe instead, substituting Mandarin oranges and orange Jello for the fresh strawberries and strawberry Jello in the recipe.

Why Your Family Will Love This Retro Side Dish

• This easy mandarin orange Jello salad will take you back to the good old days.
• It's a much requested family favorite recipe for any holiday meal.
• Old fashioned orange Jello salad is super quick and easy to make; we're talking 10 minutes at the most. And this delicious side dish only has a few simple ingredients, including an orange Jello mix, cottage cheese, crushed pineapple, and Cool Whip (or whatever type of whipped cream or whipped topping you prefer).
• Like ambrosia salad and Watergate salad, creamy orange Jello salad also contains mini marshmallows, giving it a very fluffy consistency and texture… This being the very reason it's sometimes called fluff.

I don't know about you, but I could eat this stuff up. Raise your hand if you're ready for Thanksgiving dinner (raises hand).

Ingredients and Substitutions Notes

• Small Curd Cottage Cheese – While you can use large curd cottage cheese, small curd gives the best texture to the salad. So I recommend you use small curd cottage cheese if at all possible.
• Orange Jello Mix – You can also sub other flavors like strawberry, lime, etc. In fact, another reader favorite is my strawberry Jello cottage cheese salad. Yum!
• Mandarin Oranges
• Crushed pineapple – You can also use pineapple tidbits.
• Mini Marshmallows
• Whipped Topping – Cool Whip is the easiest, but you can also make homemade whipped cream if you want.

How to Make Orange Jello Salad

There's really not a whole lotta prep to this easy mandarin orange salad recipe besides draining the fruit; so really, you can just dive in.

1. First add the cottage cheese and Jello mix to a large bowl, and mix well.
2. Next add the mandarin oranges and crushed pineapple (both drained well) to the cottage cheese mixture, and mix well.
3. Stir in the mini marshmallows.
4. Fold in the whipped topping.

5. Once it's all mixed up, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and chill for at least 1 hour before serving; overnight is fine too.

When you go to serve it, you can serve with additional mandarin oranges or whipped cream. Just make sure you store any leftovers in the refrigerator.

Expert Tips and Recipe FAQ's

Let's Talk a Little More about Making This Sugar-Free

Seeing that this is a Jello salad with fruit and marshmallows, it may prove difficult to make it completely sugar-free; but there are ways to cut down on the sugar…

• Of course, as we talked about already, you can use sugar-free Jello.
• Use sugar-free whipped cream, as well.
• With the fruit, you'll want to be sure there's no sugar added and that it's canned in 100% fruit juice, not syrup.
• Look for sugar-free marshmallows. If all you can find are bigger marshmallows, you can cut them into smaller pieces.

Ways to Customize This Orange Fluff Salad Recipe

There are a few ways you can add a little variety to this mandarin orange Jello salad recipe…

• Use a different flavor Jello, like lime or strawberry or raspberry or blackberry.
• Substitute a different type of fruit, like a fruit cocktail mix or fresh strawberries or raspberries or blackberries.
• Add walnuts or pecans to your mandarin orange Jello salad.
• Use pineapple tidbits instead of crushed pineapple.
• Add flavored marshmallows instead of regular.
• Use Dream Whip instead of Cool Whip.

What Can I Serve with Jello Salad?

Jello salad makes a wonderful complementary side dish to Thanksgiving dinner with turkey and all the sides. It also complements Christmas dinner and Easter dinner quite nicely.

Of course, it'd also make a great side dish/dessert for a potluck dinner or backyard bbq. Any meal you'll have a crowd is a great time to serve an orange fluff salad. Serve it up alongside this lemonade icebox pie for the ultimate summer potluck dessert!

CRAVING MORE DELICIOUS RECIPES? Subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on Pinterest, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram for all the latest updates!