Unbelievable: this green sludge is a popular American salad

Pistachio pudding, canned pineapple, nuts and marshmallows—those are the ingredients in this popular American dish: Watergate salad. Developed in the 1970s, it’s still a hit at parties and barbecues. Will you make it?

Exactly how and where the recipe for Watergate salad was developed isn’t entirely clear. It may have had something to do with two products added to the General Foods range in the 1970s, a large food company. At the time, they launched instant pudding in various flavors, including the bright green pistachio pudding, as well as Cool Whip, a kind of fake whipped cream.

The manufacturer called the new salad ‘Pistachio Pineapple Delight’, and it was an instant hit. People soon started calling this strange mix of pecans, pudding, marshmallows, whipped cream, canned fruit and fake whipped cream ‘Watergate Salad’, because the dish apparently also appeared on the menu at the Watergate Hotel.

Delicious with a BBQ

A salad with pudding? Never heard of it. Apparently, it isn’t served as a dessert, but as a side dish at a party or barbecue. Similar salads include the so-called Ambrosia Salad, with canned pineapple, jarred cherries and other nuts in a dairy-like sauce with that same Cool Whip. Ambrosia Salad also makes an appearance on the Thanksgiving table; every year around that holiday, it’s the dish people search for most online.

OK, who’s going to try it?

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