Creamy grape salad is an easy 5-ingredient fruit salad recipe made with red and green grapes, cream cheese, sour cream, and brown sugar for an amazing chilled dessert. Whenever my extended family gets together for holidays, everyone has the "thing" they bring. My cousin brought this cream cheese grape salad one year and it stole the show. With the heatwave hitting this summer fruit salad is becoming my go-to cold treat to take to potlucks and cookouts.
Cream cheese grape salad is an easy 5-ingredient fruit salad recipe made with red and green grapes, cream cheese, sour cream, and brown sugar. Many people may recognize this recipe as a southern grape salad or even the grape salad from Taste of Home.
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Creamy Grape Salad Ingredients
There a lot of variations of this recipe on the internet. Spicy Southern Kitchen makes a very similar salad with pecans which I personally love, but I know not all people love nuts. I also was in a hurry and didn't know where my nuts were in the midst of my kitchen remodel.
Cream cheese grape salad has five simple ingredients and is a cool, refreshing side dish for any potluck or pitch-in.
- Red and Green Grapes - I just buy the normal green and red grapes. You could buy dark purple/black grapes or the cotton candy grapes too. Also, you could use just one type of grape, but I like the flavors of both colors in this salad.
- Cream Cheese - Full-fat cream cheese will work best for the texture you want the creamy sauce to be. I have had issues with low-fat or no-fat cream cheese mixing with the sour cream.
- Sour Cream - I use the normal sour cream. Not low-fat or fat-free. Low-fat would work in this grape salad recipe.
- Brown Sugar - Light brown sugar is what is always on hand in this kitchen.
- Vanilla (optional)
- Nuts (optional) - Pecans or walnuts would also be a great topping to this salad.
How to Make Cream Cheese Grape Salad
Start with two pounds of red grapes and two pounds of green grapes. Pull the grapes from the stems and rinse with cold water. I make my grape salad in a trifle bowl.
In a separate small bowl combine the cream cheese at room temperature, sour cream, and brown sugar. Mix together with a hand mixer. If the cream cheese was not soft enough, it may be a little lumpy.
When smooth and creamy, pour the cream cheese and sour cream dressing over the grapes. Make sure this is in a large bowl, or mix the grapes in parts.
Stir to coat the grapes completely with the cream cheese dressing. Be sure to dig down to the bottom of the bowl to make sure all the grapes are getting coated with the cream cheese dressing.
Sprinkle more brown sugar to the top of the cream cheese grape salad. Refrigerate until you are ready to serve or head to the potluck. Be warned, people will start eating the grapes with their fingers as soon as you set it on the counter.
Substitutions for Southern Grape Salad
Don't have certain ingredients on hand or want to change up the salad from time to time, here are some great subsitutions for this grape fruit salad recipe.
- Greek Yogurt can be substituted for the sour cream. For a slightly sweet version, use vanilla greek yogurt.
- Add fruit besides grapes to make this salad a larger variety - Sliced berries, apples or bananas all go well with grapes. Bananas will brown so add right before serving.
- Make it a dessert by substituting cool whip for the sour cream and top with toffee bits.
Summer Recipes
Let's be honest, from fruit salads to grilling recipes, summer recipes are just not the same as winter cooking recipes. Here are some of my favorite hot weather recipes.
- Juicy Jalapeño Popper Stuffed Pork Burgers: A Fiery Twist on Classic Burgers
- Sunrise Sunset Smoothie
- Blackberry Mojito
- Cajun Bacon Wrapped Steak Bites on the Grill or Air Fryer
I have made this salad a day before. You will want to make sure your stir the salad and top with the nuts and brown sugar just before serving.
The cream cheese grape salad has to have softened cream cheese and you can get that by placing the block in the refrigerator for 20 - 30 seconds.
If your grapes are not completely dry, the cream cheese mixture may become watery. If this happens, pour off the extra water and stir again.
📖 Recipe
Cream Cheese Grape Salad
Ingredients
- 2 pounds red grapes
- 2 pounds green grapes
- 1 cup sour cream
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- ¾ cup brown sugar, divided
Instructions
- Remove all the grapes from the stems. Rinse with cold water and put in a large serving bowl.
- In a smaller bowl, mix together the softened cream cheese, sour cream and ½ cup of the brown sugar. When smooth, pour over the grapes.
- Mix the cream cheese dressing into all the grapes. Sprinkle the remaining, ¼ cup brown sugar over the top of the salad.
- Serve immediately or keep in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
Video
Nutrition
shared on Weekend Potluck and Meal Plan Monday.
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Delicious! I might even try the brown sugar/sour cream/cream cheese as a dip for other fruit like apples, so good!
This is almost like my recipe except ⅓c white sugar goes into cream cheese & sour cream mix & granola, brown sugar mixed on top. It's just as good the next day as some of the granola slightly softens but the top layer doesn't. It's AMAZING you should try it! Add blue berries for an extra yummy treat. I literally tripled the batch & it's still never enough for my fam.