So for those of you who don’t know, there’s an insanely good dish called “Green Stuff”. But everyone calls it different things. It’s also commonly known as “Watergate Salad”. It’s a Thanksgiving dish, typically.

It’s pistachio pudding, marshmallows, whipped cream (often cool whip), crushed pineapple, and pecans.

It might sound like a weird mix, but everyone goes crazy for it. It gets eaten up without fail, and it would be very popular in the rest of the US if it was exposed to people. Looks weird, has weird names, but tastes *amazing*.

I’m just curious what you guys call it. It’s called so many things that someone probably will have to look up Watergate Salad to even know what I mean, and they’ll be like “Ohhhh that’s meemaw’s wild mason Dixon disco dessert” or something.

If any of you have any specific name for it, I’m curious to hear!

36 comments
  1. I donā€™t remember us having a name for it, but my upper Midwest Lutheran side of the family always had it. We had so many Jello salads at big holidays, an entire table of them.

  2. Youā€™re asking the wrong part of the country, this is a popular dish among the midwestern part of my family & nobody Iā€™ve ever met in the South has heard of it.

  3. I’ve eaten Watergate Salad a few times in my life, but, sad to say, I can’t recall having a fun name for it. It was just Watergate Salad or green stuff.

  4. My grandma used to make something similar.

    Made it with fruit cocktail, pecans and whipped cream but it was pink (assuming it’s food coloring)

  5. LOL – I call it 1970s food. Because when I was a kid, everyone just made their own food if we had a party, moms would all bring a dish. I sort of recall that one, but the one I really remember was Waldorf Salad, which I didn’t care for but my mother thought was the tits. That was New Jersey actually.

  6. Iā€™ve never seen this at any Thanksgiving Iā€™ve been to, itā€™s not really a thing here. Iā€™m aware of it though and would probably call it Watergate Salad.

  7. I never knew what that was until one year a HS friend made it when I went back to visit my hometown. She called it Watergate salad. Accurate name because it looks like an actual crime. I didnā€™t eat it. The consistency is abhorrent.

  8. I think my southern in-laws call it Waldorf salad because they mean Watergate but they say everything wrong.

    I think it’s more of a Midwest thing, though. It was originally called pineapple pistachio delight when it was first described by Kraft Foods.

  9. Southern born and raised.

    Never heard of it seen what you’re taking about.

    If look for a Midwestern sub for your answers. If someone comes to a family dinner with an odd salad or casserole with an oblique name? 99% chance its origins are in the Midwest.

  10. Iā€™ve heard it called ambrosia salad before.

    I grew up around Chicago but my momā€™s side is from the south.

  11. We donā€™t call it anything because we have never encountered a dish resembling the one you describe

  12. My family has never EVER made that. I come from the west coast and would probably be fried alive if I brought that to thanksgiving lol

  13. One place I used to work at would call it pistachio delight. It’s pretty good. I know besides the deli I worked at Walmart sold it for a long time. I think they still might. I live in the South West Post of the country. I’ve seen other hello salads but I’ve only seen Watergate salad in stores. It’s a big hit with everyone that tasted it though. I like it more than other jello salads for sure. I’m pretty sure it also had coconut in it? I remember worrying about being allergic to it

  14. Pistachio Delight, Shut The Gate Salad, Green Goop, Green Goddess, Green Fluff, Green Stuff, Mean Green, Shamrock Salad

  15. My mom calls it ambrosia. Iā€™m sorry but it looks disgusting and you couldnā€™t pay me to eat it.

  16. Oh bless your Midwest heart. šŸ’•. I donā€™t know if theyā€™re going to know the Midwest ways of gelatinous salads that arenā€™t really salads. Thatā€™s a very special thing to the Midwest. lol. Iā€™m several years in and I donā€™t really understand it either šŸ˜…

  17. Southerner here, never even heard of the stuff. Seriously, people need to wrap their heads around the concept that a) the South is a very broad area, and b) there is no universal Southern culture.

  18. It sounds like it would be over-the-top, slap-yo-mama sweet, gelatinous nightmare.

    The ingredients are sweet on sweet on sweet on sweet…and then there’s pecans.

    I see a lot of comments saying just to try it, but if you can’t stomach 3 of the ingredients – marshmallow fluff, cool whip, and canned pineapple – then there’s probably no chance I’d enjoy it.

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