Cottage Cheese Jello Salad is the perfect side to bring to potlucks and holidays! It’s sweet and creamy yet has a delicious crunch that will have you going back for more.
If you love this jello recipe, you’ll definitely want to try my orange jello mandarin orange salad or this easy strawberry jello dessert.
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Why this Cottage Cheese Jello Salad Recipe is a Keeper
I love this salad recipe because it’s a quick and easy fluffy dessert. Vintage lime Jello salad is super delicious, only uses easy ingredients and is super customizable.
- Easy Ingredients: This lime Jello salad with cottage cheese recipe uses simple ingredients to make a delicious snack or dessert. Use a box of Jello mixture as the base, and add toppings as you see fit.
- Adaptable: The sweetness of the Jello may vary depending on the flavor you use. It’s also possible to use sugar-free Jello in this cottage cheese lime jello salad.
- Makes Great Leftovers: Green Jell-o Salad stores great in the fridge! This Jello fluff salad is light because of the cottage cheese instead of cream cheese.
Can Jello Molds be Used for this Recipe?
Sure! If you have a specific mold you’d like to use go ahead, but any square baking dish works too.
Salad Ingredients for Cottage Cheese Jello Salad
You will need just a few super simple ingredients to make old fashioned jello salad recipes for your next potluck. All of the ingredients are easy to find at the store, but you may even have some of them in your kitchen already.
- Lime Jello: You will need 2 boxes of lime dry jello powder to make this recipe.
See the recipe card below for a complete list of the ingredients with measurements.
Prep Ahead Suggestions to Make Jello Cottage Cheese Salad
Preparing this lime cottage cheese jello salad recipe ahead of time can help to save you time and kitchen space when it comes to making everything for a family reunion!
- Make Ahead: You can make this salad several days in advance and keep in the fridge.
Pro Tip to Love this Recipe
The key to a great jello salad is balance. Don’t be afraid to experiment and find your perfect combination of flavors and textures!
How to Make Jello Salad with Cottage Cheese
This recipe comes together in 3 quick and easy steps. This easter jello salad is so good, it will quickly become one of your favorite recipes!
These are the basic steps for making Vintage Lime Cottage Cheese Jello Salad. Refer to the full, printable recipe card below for detailed instructions.
1. Prepare Juice and Jello
Drain the pineapple and save the juice. Transfer juice to a 2-cup measuring cup and add enough boiling water to bring the liquid to 2 cups. Add the lime gelatin to a mixing bowl and add the boiling water mix and stir until gelatin is dissolved.
2. Mix Together Ingredients
In a separate large bowl, stir together the mayonnaise and evaporated milk until smooth. Slowly add in the gelatin mixture and stir until combined. Fold in the cottage cheese, crushed pineapple and chopped walnuts.
3. Chill Jello
Pour the mixture into an 8×8 baking dish. Cover and refrigerate gelatin salad in a serving bowl for at least 4 hours.
How to Store, Freeze and Use Leftovers of this Dessert Recipe
- Storing: Store in an airtight container in the fridge. It will be just as good 2 days later!
- Freeze: When you freeze Jello the texture changes! So if you don’t mind a change in texture, try freezing any leftovers you have for a frozen treat.
- Using Leftovers: Enjoy leftover Jello flavor fruit cocktail with Chicken Parm Sliders. Just give the salad a good stir.
Variations and Substitutions to Make Jell-O Salad
This Christmas Jello salad recipe is super easy to customize to make it your own! Try taking this great recipe for easy salad to the next level by experimenting with flavors or trying different ingredients.
- Different Flavors: Try a different flavor jello! Use orange gelatin, strawberry jello mix or raspberry jello.
- Different Nuts: Try this side dish or dessert recipe with chopped pecans with the walnuts.
- Whip: Try using whipped cottage cheese for a smooth creamy cottage cheese texture in this recipe for Jello and cottage cheese.
Jell-O Cottage Cheese Salad Recipe FAQs
Try Amish Broccoli Salad, mandarin orange Fruit Salad with Honey Lime Dressing, Vintage Potato Chip Cookies, Strawberry Fluff Salad or Orange Jello Salad.
Yes! It’s recommended that you use fresh or canned fruit over frozen fruit in this easy recipe.
Yes! Layer this recipe with different ingredients, use small curd cottage cheese and cool whip, or cream cheese and walnuts. Chill one layer of Jello salad in the refrigerator, then layer the Jello on top to create more.
Expert Tips to Make Cottage Cheese Salad This Recipe
- Double this Recipe: Cottage cheese Jello salad is one you can double if you want! Increase ingredients proportionally and split between two dishes. This recipe is an easy side dish too.
- Flavored Jello: Use any flavor of Jello! Use orange jello, strawberry jello with cottage cheese, pineapple, cherry, lemon, or raspberry.
- Toppings: Some suggestions for toppings are whipped topping, cool whip, pineapple tidbits, maraschino cherries, homemade whipped cream, and mini marshmallows.
- Additions: Blend in coconut, fresh pineapple, drained mandarin oranges with orange jell-o, cranberry, or different nuts or fruits to the Jello salad.
- Healthier: Try using a sugar free jello or a low fat cottage cheese.
- Whipped Cream: If you’d like to add whipped cream, go ahead! Fold the cool whip in to the cottage cheese and jello, rather than mixing, so you don’t deflate the cool whip.
Vintage Lime Cottage Cheese Jello Salad
Video
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Ingredients
- 8 ounces Crushed pineapple, 1 can, drain and reserve juice
- 1 cup Boiling water, adjust amount based on instructions below
- 6 ounces Lime gelatin, two 3 ounce boxes
- 1 cup Mayonnaise
- 1 cup Evaporated milk
- 1 cup Small curd cottage cheese
- ½ cup Walnuts, chopped
Instructions
- Drain pineapple and reserve the juice. Transfer juice to a 2-cup measuring cup and add enough boiling water to bring the liquid to 2 cups.
- Add the lime gelatin to a medium bowl and add the boiling water and juice; stir until gelatin is completely dissolved.
- In a separate, large bowl, stir together the mayonnaise, and evaporated milk until smooth. Slowly add in the gelatin mixture and stir until combined.
- Fold in the cottage cheese, crushed pineapple and chopped walnuts.
- Pour the mixture into an 8×8 baking dish; Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
Christina’s Notes
- Double this Recipe: Cottage cheese Jello salad is one you can double if you want! Increase ingredients proportionally and split between two dishes. This recipe is an easy side dish too.
- Flavored Jello: Use any flavor of Jello! Use orange jello, strawberry jello with cottage cheese, pineapple, cherry, lemon, or raspberry.
- Toppings: Some suggestions for toppings are whipped topping, cool whip, pineapple tidbits, maraschino cherries, homemade whipped cream, and mini marshmallows.
- Additions: Blend in coconut, fresh pineapple, drained mandarin oranges with orange jell-o, cranberry, or different nuts or fruits to the Jello salad.
- Healthier: Try using a sugar free jello or a low fat cottage cheese.
- Whipped Cream: If you’d like to add whipped cream, go ahead! Fold the cool whip in to the cottage cheese and jello, rather than mixing, so you don’t deflate the cool whip.
- Scale the recipe: Simply adjust the serving size in the recipe card and the ingredients will update automatically.
- Make your own All Purpose Seasoning: When a recipe calls for All Purpose Seasoning, you can use my homemade All Purpose Seasoning recipe or substitute salt and pepper to taste.
- Meat doneness: I always use a meat thermometer to test for doneness when cooking meat.
- Use unsalted butter: I use unsalted butter so I can control the salt level in the recipe.
- Preheat the oven: Unless otherwise noted, always preheat your oven before baking.
For more helpful information about this recipe, such as variations, substitutions and other pro-tips, check out the blog post.
I remember this as a child. My grandmother Mimi always had wonderfully good dinners. This salad is very versatile and forgiving. I did lemon Jell-O with Chia seeds, organic and walnuts half of both and call it my lemon poppyseed salad. 🤓
Your recipes are NOT keepers! You make it impossible to copy or print. I’m going elsewhere. Jon
You hit the print button on the recipe card.
This was a “must have” dish at Thanksgiving. My mother was making it in 1950’s.
I think I need to make it today.
My gran made it all the time and now I do too. Enjoy!
Never got to print it so could not try it.
So glad to find this recipe once again! Yes! Definitely tried and true! It’s a winner and asked again for the holidays. So good.
This recipe has been with our family for decades. It is always requested at Thanksgiving. My only change is that we use pecans instead of walnuts ( it’s a Southern thing). I also still use the jello mold and usually put grapes in the center.
There’s no sense in trying to change a recipe that the family absolutely loves!!
My mother always added grated carrots and used cream cheese. I don’t recall using evaporated milk. My family always looks forward to the holidays!
My grandma use to make this, and she use to spread cream cheese on the top. It was soooo good!!!
I’ve grown up w/this salad since 1970. Ours has whip cream and a bit of powder sugar instead of evaporated milk and we use grated cheddar cheese. We do not use this much mayo either. Now that pecans aren’t as expensive as they were back then we use pecans now instead of walnuts. Don’t leave the pineapple out either. This is such a light and refreshing jello salad.
horseradish sounds good 😊 thanks for the idea.
This lime jello salad is the greatest! Add a few mini marshmallows on the top too! It does spiff up the appearance!
My mother prepared this for our family holiday. Always an empty dish. With her passing I lost the recipe, can’t tell you how happy I was to see it. Thank you it’s in now in my recipe box to make for the upcoming Holiday. 🦋❤️🌹
Ditto. Im so excited I found it. We put grated cheese in ours too. Thx
my Nana would always make this dish around Easter. she never put mayo in hers
i dont remember mayo either
We never used mayo either. Cottage cheese made it creamy enough, and far less caloric. And yes, my mom added grated carrot as well. And sometimes a cup or so of mini-marshmallows. We loved it.
I make a similar version , use 8 ounces of diced pineapple , 1 cup of juice , 1 cup evaporated milk , 1 box lime Jello , small curd cottage cheese , lots of walnuts ( closer to a cup ) . It is fondly called “the green slop” but is delicious with ham and as desert .
Sounds great thanks for the hints!
How many servings are in this dish?
Truly it depends on how big you wish to make them when you cut it. However the calories etc. are based on 8 servings. Enjoy!
I make this with one small lime jello (or whatever we have in the pantry), one zero calorie cool whip, one can pineapple, 1/2-1 cup pecans and one small size cottage cheese-curd and fat your choice! Easy peasy! Would think about trying with condensed milk, but never had it with mayonnaise.
my family have been eating this since before I was born (I’m 65), With one addition- a spoonful of horseradish! You don’t really taste the horseradish, it just adds a little something interesting.
Oh my! This takes me back to my mom and all her strange treats she would make and test on my sister and I before they were servered at special dinners for army officers. I have been looking for this one for some time! Thank you!! (I am 83 years old, so you can tell how long this recipe has been around! A real RETRO!)
Made it years at Xmas but added 2 tsp of horseradish to give zip. Great with ham.
Yum. That is a great idea!
Absobloominlutely fabulous! As a kid we called it (Aunt) Janet’s Whatchamacallit Salad and NEVER left out the horseradish… Years later my hubby Jim would have me triple it and have it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert & snacks until it was gone! Then ask when I was going to make it again! 💋
My sister use to make this every Christmas. It was such a hit! I thought I remembered her putting shredded cheddar cheese also. I am wondering if I added it, if it would be okay.
I have never tried it but if you do, let me know how it is.
Ive seen Cheddar Cheese in it too. Be careful to add, once everything is cool !