Pasta Fruit Salad is sweet, creamy, and perfect for holidays and special occasions. It's loaded with fruit cocktail, macaroni, and tropical palm nuts for a festive treat!

Pasta Fruit Salad in a glass bowl — Pasta Fruit Salad

Table Of Contents

1 Helpful tips
2 Yogurt Dressing
3 How to serve and store
4 More party salad recipes
5 Pasta Fruit Salad

Pasta Fruit Salad is the follow-up recipe to chicken sisig in our 24 Days to Christmas recipe series. Since it's an old recipe from 2013 that gets a lot of love during the holiday season, I thought I'd update it with new photos and push it back into the spotlight in time for Noche Buena.

If you're looking for more holiday desserts, my buko pandan also got a bit of TLC and was revamped with new photos and a video to guide you through the simple process. I also have a couple of brand-new sweet treats coming your way soon, so yay!

nata de coco, cheese cubes, macaroni pasta, condensed milk, all-purpose cream

Christmas is just around the corner, and one dish that is almost always present in every Filipino's holiday festivities is fruit salad. Traditionally, this Filipino-style dessert is made with fruit cocktail, sweet palm nuts, and sweetened cream, but a few years ago, a friend introduced me to adding macaroni to the mix.

When she offered me a serving, my first thought was, "what a way to ruin a good recipe," but I took one spoonful and quickly swallowed my words.

The pasta cooked al dente does add a nice, chewy texture and marries well with the rest of the concoction. It's also an inexpensive way to extend servings, mainly when serving a large party.

This macaroni fruit salad recipe is creamy, tasty, and easily customizable. I like to use fruit cocktail, nata de coco, kaong, and cheese cubes to pull it together but feel free to add other canned fruits such as peaches and mandarin oranges or fresh fruits such as halved seedless grapes, diced apples, and sliced strawberries.

macaroni, fruit cocktail, kaong, and nata de coco, cheese in a bowl

Helpful tips

For best texture, cook the macaroni about a minute shy of package's directions. You will need about 2 cups cooked.
The kaong and nata de coco are usually packed in heavy syrup so make sure to drain well.
The salad will taste a little too sweet when just combined but the sweetness will mellow out once the mixture is chilled or frozen.

pouring condensed milk on fruit salad with macaroni in a glass bowl

If you'd like to trim the calories, swap the all-purpose cream and condensed milk with this yogurt dressing for a healthier option.

Yogurt Dressing

Combine 1 cup plain yogurt, ½ cup sour cream, ¼ cup honey, and 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar or pineapple juice in a bowl.
Whisk together until smooth and well-blended.
Drizzle the dressing on pasta salad and gently toss to distribute.

How to serve and store

Enjoy this pasta fruit salad recipe for your holiday gatherings and special occasions. It's delicious for everyday sweet cravings, too!
Refrigerate the salad for a few hours or overnight to chill completely. Serve cold. You can also freeze it if you prefer an icy consistency.

More party salad recipes

Chicken Potato Salad

Filipino-style Macaroni Salad

Buko Pandan Salad

Buko Salad

Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me @kawalingpinoy on Facebook and Instagram!

3.79 from 14 votes