Everyone always loves this creamy, fluffy Frog Eye Salad made with acini de pepe, pineapple, coconut, mandarin oranges, marshmallows, and bananas.
I’m sure many of you know this salad as the one that your grandmother brought to family parties. It’s super old school, but some of those old school recipes will always be classics, am I right?!
But, can we all agree that “Frog Eye Salad” is the worst name ever? It totally makes me laugh. The last thing I want to be thinking when I’m eating this is “ooh, those acini de pepes are just like little frog eyes!”.
I don’t know who came up with the name but it’s so weird. Did you grow up calling this “Frog Eye” Salad or something else? We usually called it Acini de Pepe Fruit Salad.
Well, whatever you called it, this bowl of fluffy, fruity goodness is the best! It’s basically dessert and not a salad at all. But who am I to put up a fight when a big bowl of dessert is served as a side dish? 🙂
The traditional version of this salad uses a container of thawed cool whip, but I use freshly whipped cream instead and it makes the biggest difference. Beating the cream takes just as much time as thawing a container of cool whip, but it tastes SOO much yummier!
How to make Frog Eye Salad:
In a saucepan, heat sugar, pineapple juice, egg yolk, salt, and cornstarch and whisk until combined. Bring the mixture to a boil and wait for it to thicken slightly. Remove it from heat. Cook the acini de pepe noodles separately.
Combine the acini de pepe and the sugar mixture and refrigerate overnight or for at least two hours. When you’re ready to serve the salad, combine the pineapple, oranges, coconut, bananas, and marshmallows. Then add the fruit mixture to the acini de pepe noodles. Fold in the fresh whipped cream and serve!
How do you cook acini de pepe noodles?
Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add the acini de pepe noodles, lower the heat to a simmer and cook for about 6 minutes or until al dente.
Consider trying these fruit salad recipes:
- Ambrosia Fruit Salad
- Jello Fruit Salad
- Apple Cranberry Fruit Salad
- Frog Eye Fruit Salad (Acini de Pepe)
- Creamy Fruit Salad
- Citrus Fruit Salad
You can also FOLLOW ME on FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM and PINTEREST for more great recipes!
Recipe
Frog Eye Salad
Ingredients
- 20 ounce can pineapple tidbits , drained and juice reserved
- 10 ounce can crushed pineapple , drained and juice reserved
- 1 cup reserved pineapple juice
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
- 1/2 cup acini de pepe noodles
- 15 ounce can mandarin oranges , drained
- 1/2 cup shredded sweetened coconut
- 1 cup mini marshmallows
- 1 banana , sliced
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- Drain the pineapple cans and reserve the juice. Reserve the pineapple fruit in the fridge for later.
- In a saucepan over medium heat combine the pineapple juice, sugar, egg yolk, salt and cornstarch and whisk until smooth.
- Cook until mixtures comes to a low boil and thickens slightly. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
- Cook acini de pepe noodles according to package instructions. Drain and cool.
- Combine the acini de pepe and the thickened sauce in a tupperware. Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.
- Once the acini de pepe mixture has chilled add it to a large bowl with the pineapple, mandarin oranges, coconut, marshmallows, and bananas.
- In a separate bowl beat the cream and sugar together until stiff peaks. Fold fresh whipped cream into the acini de pepe mixture. Serve immediately or refrigerate.
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?
Tag @TastesBetterFromScratch on Instagram with #TastesBetterFromScratch!
Have you tried this recipe?!
RATE and COMMENT below! I would love to hear your experience.
This post contains affiliate links.
I have used the frog eye salad recipe many many times. It’s easy and not expensive to make at all. The only problem I had was figuring out which sugar to use with what step. Other than that easy, peasy tyvm. I am now hooked on it
Really valuable about this recipe is using the drained juice. I had already bought pineapple juice ($2.69) but did a taste test ( very similar) & used the drained juice.
AWESOME, AWESOME AND MORE AWESOME. MAKING OT RIGHT NOW FOR THE 3RD TIME SINCE THANKSGIVING
It drives me nuts when people call ANY pasta “noodles”. Call it acini de pepe pasta.
Noodles are flat strips of pasta.
That said, the recipe is fine and we call it Frog Eye Salad.
your comment is unnecessary. didn’t your mom teach you, “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all?”
In Kansas we DO NOT PUT coconut, bananas or marshmallows in Frog Eye! Our family loves it!!! We always have this at Thanksgiving & Christmas. Leftovers are better with frog eye.
I don’t put coconut or bananas in mine either. I think bananas would turn it brown and would not stay fresh as long.
I don’t do the banana or coconut either. It’s definitely a family favorite.
I cut the bananas in the pineapple or mandarin orange juice then drain the bananas, the bananas don’t turn brown for 3 or 4 days
If you put the sliced banana in some of the pineapple juice it will not turn brown.
Kansan here and yes! None of that goes in mine😉 but I do love this salad!
Love this salad my good friend made it and I just had to have this recipe 🐸👀🥗💛💖💙❤️💜
Wonderful, wonderful recipe! We made it with colorful marshmallows and it was an instant hit with my four teenagers.
Great Recipe! I added diced peaches & maraschino cherries to mine in addition to all the other yummy fruit.
This is always a hit at any gathering!!
When I tell People its Frog eyes They don’t want to eat it But they love it when they finally taste it. A very refreshing Summer dessert/
I made this and it was simple to make and tasted delicious!!! I will definitely be making this again and again.
Thank you!
I had this salad at a reception. I ask the lady who made it what was this delightful food. She told me it was Frog Eye Salad. I looked back at my dish and it did sort of look like frog eyes. I am a biologist so it was ok with me that it really did look like frog eyes. I looked it up and can’t wait to fix it.
Delicious! I worked at a restaurant making salads and side dishes in high school, and we added strawberries to our frog eye salad. I’ve also added fresh mango. Everyone loved it!
My Mom made this for every pot luck for several decades. I took it for granted and now that she has passed i miss her so and my heart aches for some of her Frog Eye Salad! And this recipe will be so close and Thank you tp ypi all who make this possible! Love to you all
I have made a close version of this for twenty years and still love it today. I don’t use coconut and bananas because it is very sweet without them. I use a large container of whipped cream instead of making it from scratch. Thank you for sharing this with others.
Thanks for sharing your adaptions!
if you use bananas then it won’t last as long. Best to leave them out.
good to know! Thanks for saying that!
Where can you purchase the acini de pepe noodles? I’ve gone to two of my favorite grocery stores and couldn’t find them.
That’s strange–my local grocery stores carry them….even Walmart. You could always buy them online…Amazon for example. Good luck!
when I first moved to Pacific Northwest, no one had heard of this and stores did not carry the pasta. Just had to make special requests a few times, now they carry it all the time.
I had to visit three different grocery stores before finding them. I used the Instacart app to see who had them before I took to another store. Good luck ?
they aren’t noodles. it is macaroni Smith’s, Kroeger, Safeway, Albertsons, Price chopper, Walmart, Target all carry this macaroni
They are in pasta isle with pasta
Safeway
My granddaughter loves frogs and turtles and bugs so when you posted this recipe I thought I would make it because of the name. I had no idea it would be such a hit! Everyone loved it and loved the name and now it will be a staple at our celebrations. Thank you so much for making our Thanksgiving extra special this year. We’re still talking about Frog Eye Salad. ?❤️?
So much better than what I’ve made in the past with instant pudding. Thanks for the recipe! We loved it.
I remember my grandmother making this when I was younger. Your recipe is delish and I will definitely be making this again!
This was so easy to make and everyone loved it! We will be making it again for both Thanksgiving and Christmas this year!
Isn’t this pretty similar to what we called ambrosia?
They are similar, but ambrosia doesn’t have the acini de pepe mixture in it, and I use yogurt in the ambrosia. Here’s my Ambrosia fruit salad recipe, for comparison. https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/ambrosia-fruit-salad/
What size can of tidbits and crushed pineapple do you use?
I’ve updated the ingredients! Thanks 🙂
Can you leave out yolk from frog eyed salad?
Wow! This is a long-lost favorite salad!! I showed this to my husband, and he said this was one of his favorite party salads, but neither one of us has seen this in so many years! Thank you for posting this!
My grandma used to make this! I haven’t had it since she passed away! I’m gonna have to make it soon!!
This looks amazing! I love trying new fruit salads!
My mom used to make this when I was growing up. It is sooo yummy!
I loved my grandma’s frog eye salad and this one looks just as good. Definitely going to try!
Wow. I’ve never seen this before, or even heard of it! Is it a very classic American dish? Definitely not something we have in the southern hemisphere in Australia 🙂
This salad is the best. Be sure and try it if you can get all the ingredients there. I have a SisterFriend in Australia and would love to give her the recipe if you have the ingredients there. I live in Florida.
We did call it frog eye salad. I should see if my lil daughter would like this.
I was told that the acini de pepe noodles were frog eyes when I was little.