Pear and Lime Jello Salad

This easy Pear and Lime Jello Salad is a retro classic that can be served as either a dessert or a side dish at the holidays or any time of the year!

this recipe

It’s sweet, creamy, light and fluffy, refreshing, delicious, and just as good at a summer barbecue as it is with Christmas dinner!

Back in the day when Jell-O salads and molds were all the rage, this one was often called Seafoam Salad (I assume because of it’s lovely seafoam green color and fluffy texture). And it’s a holiday dinner tradition in our family!

We call it The Green Jell-O Salad (because there’s a red one too), and there are very strong opinions about it. Some of us love it {raises hand and waves it enthusiastically}. And others…well, not so much.

I don’t get that (it’s sooo good!), but it’s totally fine because, you know, more for those of us who enjoy it!

Last year, I shared David’s grandma’s recipe for Cherry Applesauce Jello Salad (that’s the red one), and it’s become such a popular recipe here on the blog that I decided to share this one as well (I guess lots of people still like Jell-O salad!).

It’s so easy, all you need is 4 ingredients, and it takes only about 15 minutes to put it all together. Then you just let it chill out in the refrigerator until it’s set…so it’s perfect for making ahead.

Now, I will admit that I took a couple of liberties with Grandma’s recipe to make it just a little quicker and easier (both out of sheer laziness, if I’m going to be totally honest). I shortened up the steps, and I swapped out the Dream Whip for Cool Whip.

Both changes worked out just fine, and the salad came out exactly the same. You’ve got to try it!

Ingredients you need:

• Canned pear halves (in syrup or juice; I use the ones in heavy syrup)
• Lime Jell-O
• Cream cheese
• Cool Whip

Here’s a look at how to make Pear and Lime Jello Salad:

Note: This is just a quick overview of the steps. Scroll down to the recipe card for the full recipe with detailed instructions.

Tips & Tidbits:

• This recipe makes about 6 cups of salad (enough for 12 half-cup servings). If you don’t need quite that much, you can easily halve the recipe (you’ll just have half of a box of Jell-O left over to use another time).
• The steps in the original recipe called for letting the Jell-O partially set before adding the pear and cream cheese mixture and then letting that partially set before adding the Cool Whip.
  • I decided to skip those steps and just mix everything together so I could put it in the fridge and forget about it until I was ready to serve it. I didn’t notice any difference in the end result.
• The original recipe called for Dream Whip. I can’t always find it, so I substituted Cool Whip. If you’d like to use Dream Whip, use one envelope and prepare according to the package directions (you will need milk and vanilla extract).
  • Don’t substitute homemade whipped cream in this recipe; it is not stable enough and will break down rather quickly.
• I have seen lots of variations to this recipe. Here are just a few:
  • You can use one 8-ounce container of small curd cottage cheese instead of cream cheese.
  • Two 15-ounce cans of crushed pineapple can be substituted for the pears. You need 1¼ cup of juice. If there’s not enough juice in the cans, use water to make up the difference.
  • Add chopped pecans.
  • Add maraschino cherries.
• You could also try making this salad with other flavors of Jell-O.

You can top each serving with a dollop of whipped cream if you’d like. And wouldn’t a red maraschino cherry on top make this so festive and perfect when serving it for the holidays?

I hope you try this Pear and Lime Jello Salad recipe and love it as much as I do. Thanks for visiting today!

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