Creamy Grape Salad is made with green and red grapes coated in a cream cheese dressing, then topped with brown sugar and chopped pecans for an added crunch. A refreshing fruit salad that’s perfect for potlucks.

Creamy grape salad in an individual bowl topped with chopped pecans and brown sugar.

Fruit Salads for Potlucks

Fruit salad is a popular option to bring to potlucks. Crisp, fresh fruits are cool and refreshing, especially in the spring and summer months.

Fruit salads are not your typical “green salad” and can often double as a side dish and a dessert. Especially if it’s more than just a bowl of mixed fruit, like this creamy grape salad.

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Top view of a creamy fruit salad with red and green grapes, pecans, and brown sugar.

Dessert Salads

Fruit salads dressed with cream cheese, whipped cream/whipped topping, or a combination of the two (and possibly other sweet ingredients like marshmallows or boxed mixes) are often referred to as “dessert salads.”

Some fruit salads are super creamy with less fruit, like my Orange Fluff Salad, Raspberry Fluff, Pink Fruit Salad, or Strawberry Cheesecake Salad.

Some might even include pasta like this Frog Eye Salad. And others might just have fruit flavor from jello or pudding like my lemon jello salad.

There’s so many options. But it’s not often you hear about a grape salad. It’s the perfect solution for what to do with a bunch of grapes.

What is grape salad made of?

This recipe for creamy grape salad is made with six main ingredients:

Red Grapes (Or black grapes. My package said “red grapes,” but these obviously look more like black ones. Either would work.)
Green Grapes
Cream Cheese
Sour Cream (Yes, sour cream. It’s good I promise. Think about how cheesecake often has sour cream in it.)
Granulated Sugar
Vanilla

That’s not including the topping of brown sugar and pecans. Do NOT skip this! The brown sugar, is like “the frosting on the cake” for this grape salad. Heavenly!

The creamy dressing is just lightly sweetened and the brown sugar adds a crispy, sweet, and addicting texture to this salad. The chopped pecans are also a nice addition, adding a nutty crunch. Of course you can feel free to experiment with other nuts or toppings.

Whatever you do, you need to try this creamy grape salad ASAP! It’s so addicting and super simple to make. The hardest part is picking the grapes off of the stems.

Recipe for Grape Salad

Be sure to start with softened cream cheese, so you don’t get lumps.

Three image collage to make grape salad. Beat cream cheese mixture. Add grapes. Stir and top with brown sugar and pecans.

Beat the cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, and vanilla together in a large bowl with an electric hand mixer.
Add the grapes and fold together with the cream cheese dressing.
Transfer grape salad to a serving bowl and refrigerate until ready to eat. Then sprinkle with brown sugar and pecans just before serving.

Individual serving of creamy grape salad in a bowl.

Alternative Ingredients for Grape Salad

Cream cheese and sour cream might not be the “healthiest” ingredients, so if you’re looking for an alternative that’s better for you, mascarpone cheese and Greek yogurt should work well instead.

For toppings you can add any chopped nuts, toast them first for a boosted flavor.

You could alternately chop up a candy bar like Snickers or use Heath toffee bits to sprinkle on top.

A chopped cookie like Girl Scout Samoas/Keebler Coconut Dreams would also be delicious, like in my apple salad. Just keep in mind cookies will absorb moisture, so don’t add those until just before serving.

Red and green grapes in a fluffy cream cheese sauce topped with brown sugar and pecans.

Serving and Storing

This creamy grape salad recipe makes about 10 cups, for 20 (1/2-cup) servings.

Store grape salad in an airtight container in the fridge up to 5-7 days.

NOTE: The dressing does separate a little bit after storing in the fridge, but stirring it up solves that problem. Be sure to only top what you are going to eat with the brown sugar and pecans, otherwise the sugar will dissolve and the pecans may soften.

20 servings

Ingredients

▢ 2 pounds seedless red grapes
▢ 2 pounds seedless green grapes
▢ 8- oz (226 g) brick cream cheese, softened
▢ 1 cup (240 g) sour cream
▢ ⅓ cup (68 g) granulated sugar
▢ 1 tsp vanilla extract

Topping:

▢ ¼ cup (50 g) brown sugar
▢ ¼ cup (28 g) chopped pecans

Equipment

Instructions

Rinse and drain grapes. Pluck grapes off of stems. Set aside.
Beat the cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, and vanilla together in a large bowl with an electric hand mixer.
Add the grapes and fold together with the cream cheese dressing.
Transfer grape salad to a serving bowl and refrigerate until ready to eat. Then sprinkle with brown sugar and pecans just before serving.

Notes

Store grape salad in an airtight container in the fridge up to 5-7 days.
NOTE: The dressing does separate a little bit after storing in the fridge, but stirring it up solves that problem. Be sure to only top what you are going to eat with the brown sugar and pecans, otherwise the sugar will dissolve and the pecans may soften.

Nutrition

Disclaimer: Nutritional values were calculated using a third-party tool and are provided as an estimation only.

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