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Why You’ll Love My Recipe
Grab your fanciest old school gelatin mold and have fun making this vibrant green dessert salad for your next party.
Try a 5 cup salad or this Harvey Wallbanger Cake for more sweet and fluffy retro desserts. If it’s the zestiness of lime that you like best, try Creamy Lime Pie or make yourself a Key Lime Mojito to sip while you munch.
Reader Review
So so so good! Got some vintage jello molds and used this recipe to test them out and it was such a hit! Made two. One that followed the recipe exactly and it turned out amazing! So creamy and sweet but not too sweet and the second I made sugar free I would say for the sugar free one you would want to add some clear unflavored gelatin when melting the jello bc it won’t set as firm as the sugar jello but other than that amazing!
Karlynn’s Recipe Notes
- Skill Level: This is a very easy recipe.
- Total Time: Making this dessert salad takes approximately 4 hours from start to finish.
- Variations: Try adding even more whipped cream and cherries to the top of the gelatin. Mix in some mini marshmallows. Sprinkle on some chopped nuts, add some slices of candied lime, or even some lime zest. If you’d like the green to be more pronounced, add a drop or two of green food colouring. Why not try this with a different flavour of gelatin or some canned peaches?
- Tools Needed: For this recipe, you’ll need a large bowl, a medium bowl, a gelatin mold or another large bowl, a potato masher or a fork, a glass measuring cup, and a hand mixer or a whisk.
What You’ll Need For Ingredients
Canned Pears: Halves or slices are both find, since you’ll be mashing the fruit, but make sure to buy the kind that are canned in juice rather than water. If you happen to have some homemade canned pears around, that’s even better.
Cream Cheese: You can use low fat, full fat, or even plant-based cream cheese for this salad, but you may need to adjust other ingredients or be prepared for the texture to be different.
Whipped Topping: Here’s another ingredient you can use a lower fat version of if you’d like. If you prefer, you could also use actual whipped cream, but it may not hold up the same as the whipped topping does.
How To Make Retro Seafoam Salad
This is a brief overview of the recipe. The full list of ingredients and step-by-step instructions are in the recipe card below.
- Measure one cup of juice from the can of pears into a microwave safe glass measuring cup. Heat in the microwave until boiling (1-2 minutes).
- Sprinkle lime gelatin into the boiling pear juice and stir until fully dissolved. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and heavy cream until smooth and blended completely. Slowly mix in the gelatin. Stir until fully blended. Place bowl in fridge to chill for 40-50 minutes.
- Put drained pears into a medium bowl and mash them with a potato masher of a fork until smooth. Fold pears and whipped topping into gelatin mixture.
- Pour everything into a gelatin mold or a large bowl. Cover and chill in fridge for 2-3 hours or until firm.
- Dip bottom of mold in warm water for a few seconds. Invert over a plate or tray, decorate and serve.
Karlynn’s Tips and Tricks for Making Retro Seafoam Salad
Keep it Creamy: No matter which variety of cream cheese you use for this recipe, make sure that its room temperature and soft before you mix it. Cold cream cheese will be harder to blend and will leave small lumps in the mixture instead of getting creamy and smooth. If you use a sugar-free gelatin, you may need to add some plain gelatin to keep the texture and make sue everything sets.
Simplify It: If you haven’t got a gelatin mold, don’t worry. Just make this salad in a large bowl. Add as much whipped cream and as many cherries as your heart desires and enjoy it by scooping spoonfuls right out of the bowl! If you’re short on time, you can put the salad into several smaller bowls to chill in the fridge, and then top them each individually as you serve.
Storage Instructions
You can store this salad in the fridge uncovered for up to an hour before serving it. Just don’t add the whipped cream until right before you plate it up or it will deflate and melt. Cover leftovers with plastic wrap and store in the fridge for 2-3 days. It probably wouldn’t freeze well at all.
More Delicious Dessert Salad Recipes
If you’d like to try more dessert salads, check out some of these.
Make a Watergate Salad if you enjoy pistachio pudding in your treats.
Try some Hawaiian Cheesecake Fluff for a tropical twist.
If marshmallow strikes your fancy, try a Retro Strawberry Fluff or Red, White and Blueberry Pie Marshmallow Fluff.
There you go, everyone. A simple dessert salad that makes for a refreshing treat in the heat of summer. Try it out and let me know what you think.
Happy Cooking!
Karlynn
Retro Sea Foam Salad Recipe
Ingredients
- 28 ounces pear halves , canned, DO NOT DRAIN
- 3 ounces package lime flavored Jell-O® mix
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened, room temperature
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- 3 cups frozen whipped topping, thawed (see notes)
Instructions
- Measure out one cup of pear juice from the canned pears into a large glass measuring cup (make sure it is microwave safe!).
- Heat the pear juice in the microwave until boiling.
- Carefully sprinkle the lime gelatin over the boiling hot pear juice. Stir until the gelatin has dissolved completely with no granules remaining.
- In a large bowl combine the cream cheese with the heavy cream. Beat until smooth.
- Slowly add in the gelatin mixture, and mix until smooth and blended in completely.
- Place the bowl in the refrigerator and chill until the mixture is partially thickened, around 40-50 minutes. The time needed for this step depends on how hot your water was.
- Drain the remaining pears in the can and place the pears into a medium sized bowl. Mash the pears with a potato masher or fork until smooth.
- Fold the pears and the whipped topping into the lime gelatin mixture.
- Pour the gelatin into a mold or a large bowl. IF you have extra like I did when putting it into the mold simply put the rest into a small bowl.
- Cover and chill the mixture in the fridge for 2-3 hours OR until it's set.
- To unmold the salad, dip the bottom of the mold (which is actually the top when you flip it over, FYI) in warm water for 5 seconds. Invert the onto a large serving plate and serve.
- If you have made it in a bowl, simply scoop it out to serve!
Notes
- The Cool Whip should be an 8-ounce container, which we don’t always have in Canada, it’s about 3 cups of whipped topping.
- Calories are based on fresh pears, the calories will be more and will depend on the brand of pears that you use and the amount of sugar in the juice etc.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Libba says
Now this seems refreshing and perfect for these end of summer days! In your picture, it looks frosted so it looks good and cold and crisp to me and for some real reason, I totally expected to see Sprite or 7-Up in the recipe. I can’t wait to try this thank you for posting!
Donna says
Can I use real whipped cream to replace the Cool Whip? Will it hold its shape?
Amelia says
So so so good! Got some vintage jello molds and used this recipe to test them out and it was such a hit! Made two. One that followed the recipe exactly and it turned out amazing! So creamy and sweet but not too sweet and the second I made sugar free I would say for the sugar free one you would want to add some clear unflavored gelatin when melting the jello bc it won’t set as firm as the sugar jello but other than that amazing!
deborah white says
what size jello mold
Susan says
We had this recipe every holiday growing up. I made it for my kids and now my grandkids.
Jaye says
Hi Karlynn! I’m not familiar with this version, but it’s right up my alley! A similar one that frequented every Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner was Lime Cottage Cheese salad. Lime jello, pineapple, whip cream, cream cheese, salad dressing/mayo, and cottage cheese. I love it and still make it today. I may try pears in my version next time!
Karlynn Johnston says
That one is on my list to make!! I won’t tell the kids that mayo is in it… and see what they think!