Tropical treats await you when you make a big bowl of Hawaiian Cheesecake Salad, bursting with sweet fruit and a luscious cheesecake filling!
Treat everyone to a fruit salad they won’t soon forget, and whip up an incredibly easy and delicious Hawaiian Cheesecake Salad. Sweet and creamy cheesecake flavors mixed with delicious fruits like melon, kiwi, strawberries, bananas, mangos, and pineapple, is the perfect fruit salad to make for family and friends for every occasion!
Sweet Aloha!
Any dish with the word salad in the title means it can be eaten at any time, and that’s a rule I’m sticking with! A sweet, tropical salad loaded with everyone’s favorite fruits is too amazing to wait until dessert for so I always make some room right next to my burger for a big helping. I love letting my kids pick which fruits they want to (carefully) cut while I get to make the delicious cheesecake cream so that I can sneak a spoonful. Hawaiian Cheesecake Salad is the perfect potluck dish and a summer staple at our BBQs!
Fruit salads are staples at potlucks, so be sure to make the ones that everyone loves to eat and share, like Ambrosia Salad and Classic Watergate Salad.
Other Recipes to Serve with Hawaiian Cheesecake Salad
- Strawberry & Mandarin Orange Salad is a deliciously beautiful way to add sweet fruit to a green salad and the perfect side to serve at potlucks.
- Spinach, Bacon and Strawberry Salad is another great side to serve at BBQs, and with everyone’s favorite ingredient, bacon, this salad is always a winner!
Ingredients
Refrigerated items: To make this salad, you will need softened cream cheese (regular, low-fat, or Neufchatel are fine), Greek yogurt, and whipped cream.
Pantry items: Vanilla paste or extract and powdered sugar are also needed for this recipe.
Fruit: You will need a variety of fruit cut into bite-sized pieces. So grab some strawberries, cantaloupe melon, kiwi, mangos, and bananas. You will also need to juice a lemon, a can of mandarin oranges, and a can of pineapple tidbits.
How to Make Hawaiian Cheesecake Salad
STEP ONE: In a medium bowl, mix the cream cheese, whipped cream, and Greek yogurt, either with a whisk or with a hand blender. In a small bowl, add the bananas and coat them with lemon juice to prevent browning.
STEP TWO: In a large bowl, combine all of the fruit.
STEP THREE: Drizzle the cheesecake cream over the fruit and fold everything together until well coated. Serve immediately.
Tips for Success
- Cantaloupe, honeydew, or galia melon can be used in this fruit salad. However, watermelon is not a good choice, because of how watery it is which will affect the creamy salad.
- Fresh oranges and pineapple can be used instead of canned varieties, but be sure to remove as much skin and pith as possible so that the fruit isn’t too tough to eat.
- This salad can easily be made ahead of time. Make up the cheesecake cream in one bowl and the fruit in another, cover each and refrigerate until you are ready to mix and serve. The cheesecake cream will be thick, which is good as it will coat the fruit better.
- Short on time, but can’t bear the thought of not having this salad? Skip the cheesecake cream and instead mix together coconut yogurt with enough powdered sugar to sweeten the yogurt to your liking and then toss the fruit with the sweetened yogurt.
What other fruits can I add to this salad?
There are so many delicious fruits you can use in this salad, so don’t feel limited by the recipe! Add more tropical flair to this sweet treat by adding dragon fruit, star fruit, or papaya. If you’re not a melon lover, skip it and add grapes instead. Other ideas of what to add are toasted maraschino cherries, coconut flakes, or mini marshmallows for more of a sweet dessert! As a side note, substituting canned ingredients is a great idea when certain fruits are out of season or just hard to get but remember to drain them entirely so they don’t water down your salad.
Can I use frozen fruit?
Frozen fruit is not recommended for this dessert salad. Once thawed, the fruit is pretty soft and will give the salad a mushy texture. The frozen fruit may also make the salad too watery. It’s best to stick to fresh fruit or canned, well-drained fruit. Remember to avoid watery fruit like watermelon for the same reason- you don’t want anything watery breaking the cheesecake filling and making the salad runny.
A fruit salad for every potluck occasion!
- The Best Fruit Salad Recipe
- Strawberry Pretzel Salad
- Lemon Lime Berry Salad
- Berry Cheesecake Fruit Salad
- Grape Salad
Equipment
Ingredients
Cheesecake Cream
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened
- 4 ounces whipped cream
- 4 ounces plain greek yogurt (or vanilla)
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Fruit Salad
- 8 oucnes strawberries hulled and cut into bite-sized pieces
- 8 oucnes cantaloupe peeled, seeded and cut into bite-sized pieces
- 2 mangos peeled, cored, and cut into bite-sized pieces
- 2 bananas peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces
- 4 kiwis peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces
- 15 ounces canned pineapple tidbits drained
- 11 oucnes canned mandarin oranges drained
- 1 tablespoons lemon juice
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients for the cheesecake cream together in a medium mixing bowl, using a hand blender or a whisk, until smooth.
- Add the lemon juice to the banana pieces and mix carefully until the bananas are completely covered. This will help prevent browning.
- Place all the prepared fruit into a large serving bowl. Fold the cheesecake cream gently in with the fruit until evenly mixed. Serve as soon as possible.
Notes
- Cool Whip or whipped cream
- Sour cream for plain Greek yogurt
- Honeydew or Gaila melon for cantaloupe. Do not use watermelon. It’s too watery and will make everything mushy.
- Fresh mandarin oranges – remove all skin. It can be tough to chew.
Shannon S. says
This was so good. I made it as written. We enjoyed it. I didn’t drain the canned fruit very good so it was wet. But so so good!