Healthy Watergate Salad

Healthy watergate salad that’s still sweet, fluffy and delicious, but instead of instant pudding mix and marshmallows, we’re using Greek yogurt, coconut whip, and real pistachios. Watergate salad was one of my favorite things to eat growing up. My mom would make it every year for Easter and for summer cookouts.
If you didn’t grow up in the south you might be wondering what the heck watergate salad is, so let me fill you in real fast. What is Watergate Salad?
This “salad” goes by a lot of names… I’ve always known it as Watergate Salad but apparently, it’s also known as Pistachio Delight, Shut The Gate Salad, Green Goop, Green Fluff or Green Stuff. Lots of official names. 😉 Traditionally it’s made from pistachio pudding mix, canned pineapple, whipped cream, crushed pecans, and marshmallows.
How is This a Salad?
I don’t know if this is a southern thing or just old school, but we had so many dessert salads growing up! My mom always made Watergate salad and my grandma would make something called strawberry pretzel salad which has a pretzel and butter crust, a layer of whipped cream and cream cheese, all topped with strawberry jello.
Making Watergate Salad With Real Food Ingredients
My mom used to make Watergate salad “healthy” by using a fat-free Cool Whip and sugar-free pistachio pudding mix. I recently looked at the ingredient lists for these items and immediately decided I needed to find a way to make watergate salad with real food ingredients. They were scary! The sugar-free pistachio pudding mix has aspartame and food dyes while Cool Whip has corn syrup as the first ingredient and hydrogenated vegetable oil as the third. No thanks! Here’s how I made this version healthier: I really wanted to use fresh pineapple but when I tested the recipe with it, something always tasted off so I’m using canned crushed pineapple (that’s packed in juice, not syrup) for the recipe. The flavor is perfect and it brings a familiar texture to the dish as well.
Instead of the pudding mix, I opted to use vanilla Greek yogurt (I like Siggi’s) blended with
For the whipped cream, I recommend using frozen coconut whipped cream. I tried making the recipe with homemade coconut whip several times, but none of those batches turned out. The homemade coconut cream separated and became thick. Plus, I found that the store-bought coconut whipped cream added the best fluff and sweetness, making this healthier watergate salad more similar to the real deal. I recommend using the SoDelicious Coco Whip.
At first, I skipped the marshmallows all together, but in a couple test batches I added chopped dates to replace the marshmallows and I really liked the substitution. The dates are optional for the recipe, but I think they are fun addition if you want to find surprise bites of soft and sweet throughout the “salad.”
Ingredients in Healthy Watergate Salad
Canned crushed pineapple (packed in juice)
Vanilla Greek yogurt
Spinach
Almond Extract
Pistachios
Coconut whipped topping
Medjool dates (optional)
If you’re like me and grew up with this salad, I hope you like this healthier version. I can’t wait to hear what you think! If you make this healthy watergate salad, please be sure to leave a comment and star rating letting me know how it turns out for you! Your feedback is super helpful for the EBF team and other EBF readers.
Description
A healthy watergate salad that’s still sweet, fluffy and delicious, but instead of instant pudding mix and marshmallows, we’re using Greek yogurt, coconut whip, and real pistachios.