Watergate Salad


When I saw this ‘70’s salad in the “Library of Family Favorites" I immediately remembered buying it at our grocery deli back when, and everyone enjoyed it.  There were 3 contributors of this recipe which attests to its popularity.  The earliest printed recipe for this salad was in the Washington Post, November 13, 1975, according to Foodtimeline.Org.  Kraft published a similar recipe, without the Watergate name, when they brought out Pistachio pudding mix in 1975. 
It’s very, very simple to make, so we enjoyed it for lunch today, after I stopped by the store to purchase the ingredients.  Were I going to make this more often, I would look for the ingredients on sale.  However, it cost $3.99 for ½ this amount of similar salads at our grocery deli today, so 5 minutes of mixing saves a lot; and you know when it was prepared and how it was stored.  I can't believe I was ever willing to pay so much more to buy it premade.
It is a light, refreshing dessert-salad; excellent for pot lucks or entertaining when you don’t want to fuss and you want make something most folks will eat.                  
                             Watergate Salad
  1          box (3.4 ounces) instant pistachio pudding mix  
  20        ounce can crushed pineapple, undrained
  1 ½      cups *thawed Cool Whip® (1/2 of an 8 oz. carton)
     ½      cup  pecans or other nuts
  1          cup  miniature marshmallows

Fold dry pudding into whipped topping.  Add pineapple and juice, marshmallows and nuts.  Refrigerate at least 1 hour.
*Cool whip can be thawed 4 hours in the refrigerator.
Contributors:  Angela Fisher, Lori Rogus, Wanda Kline
2011 Cost:  $3.11 per quart recipe
Yield:  "1 quart"

3 comments:

  1. Love this salad! I also love all the variations that I have seen. Like cherry pie filling and cherry jello instead of the pistachio pudding, or orange jello with mandarin oranges. These types of salads are at ALL of our family dinners. Thanks for reminding me of this one, I think I have all the ingredients for supper tonight!

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  2. I still make this salad at Christmas each year. Love it!

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  3. LOVE this! THANK YOU for the reminder-- I'm going to put this together in a little while. This fluffy dessert has been 'attending' our family gatherings for many years, already. Like Debbie writes, we also like variations of this recipe. M-m-m-m-m-m, your picture is SO good and it's also 'suggestive'. I love your postings. Doris of http://milkmaidrecipebox.blogspot.com/

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