Today, I’m sharing a recipe for Aunt Cathie’s Grape Salad from our friend Shannon. I first met Shannon when she attended one of my cooking classes and me and my Mama just fell in love with her joyful spirit. Shannon is an encourager – and a generous one at that! She painted me a beautiful picture, which hangs in front of my desk so I see it throughout the day. She also shared one of her family cookbooks with me and offered free reign to share some of those delicious recipes with you. Today I am sharing the best grape salad I have ever had IN MY LIFE. Seriously folks, this recipe must have been blessed and prayed over at countless church suppers because that is the only logical explanation for how one dish can taste so good.
Aunt Cathie’s Grape Salad is perfect for a springtime brunch, bridal or baby shower, a treat for yourself or anyone else you love enough to serve this earthly manna to. Make sure you save this recipe, print it off, share it to your Facebook wall, or pin it to your Pinterest boards. And if you enjoy Southern Plate, I would consider it a personal favor if you would tell your friends to come join us here. There is always room at my table. Let’s get in the kitchen…
To make Aunt Cathie’s Grape Salad the ingredients you’ll need are: Cream Cheese (check out my easy homemade cream cheese recipe), Pecans (optional), Sour Cream, Vanilla, Seedless Grapes (I prefer red for color), White Sugar, and a little bit of brown sugar to top it all off.
These ingredients are so simple, so staple, so normal – and when combined they become something so wonderful!
Take your softened cream cheese and put it in a mixing bowl along with the white sugar, sour cream, and vanilla.
Beat that with an electric mixer until it accepts its fate of becoming the wondrous dressing for this salad. Sometimes bad situations transform us into better things, as has just happened to that cream cheese here. #creamcheeselifelessons
Take a large spoon and stir in your whole grapes. Hopefully you remembered to wash them. If not, consider this a boon to your immunity!
To anyone freaking out after reading that last sentence: Hey there, friend! It’s gonna be okay. We used to eat dirt as kids. It’s all good. For reals. Exhale.
When you’re done, sprinkle the top with a little brown sugar and some chopped pecans, if you’d like.
Now step back, look at it, and smile.
Awww! Such a pretty dish.
Okay, admiring time is over. ENJOY Aunt Cathie’s Grape Salad today!

Ingredients
- 2 pounds seedless grapes
- 8 ounces sour cream
- 16 ounces cream cheese 2 - 8 ounce boxes
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ cup white sugar
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- Chopped pecans
Instructions
- Allow cream cheese to come to room temp by leaving on counter overnight. In large mixing bowl, combine cream cheese, sour cream, vanilla, and sugar. Beat until well blended and smooth.
- Stir in grapes to coat.
- Move to serving dish and sprinkle top with brown sugar and pecans.
Nutrition
Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness.
~Lucius Annaeus Seneca
You might also enjoy these fruit salad recipes:
Fresh Fruit Salad with Lemon Honey Dressing
Fruit Cocktail Cake: A Family Favorite
I’ve been making this salad for many many years and it’s always a crowd favorite. The only thing I do different is to use two different colors of grapes. Makes it even prettier.
That sounds like it would be beautiful. Thank you so much for your kind words 🙂
I have never even heard of grape salad. It look’s amazing. I actually think I would like to eat this for breakfast. ♀️Thank you for sharing it. We are having “Thanksgiving” dinner this Sunday. My son is in the Navy and he wasn’t here for any of the holidays because of COVID-19. No traveling allowed. I am going to make this salad.
This is one of my favorites and we laugh and say actually it’s so sweet and good it could serve as dessert. Only thing I do different is only one package of cream cheese as 16oz is a little over kill for me…but to each his own. Also it’s fun to use two colors grapes for more color. It’s just plain delicious no matter what you add or don’t add. So glad to see it shared on your page.
Thank you for your comments! Love this “salad” 🙂
Christy, I grew up in north Louisiana. We had cows and chickens and a horse or two and Daddy always had a big garden. He was a carpenter by trade and worked in Shreveport, so he had to get up early and take care of the livestock before leaving for his job. Momma fixed a big breakfast of hot biscuits and bacon or sausage and eggs every single morning for him, and my older sister and I got up and we all had breakfast together and a devotional even though it was very early before school. I was always ENVIOUS of my friends who had toast for breakfast. It sounded so exotic, until I had my first piece and saw what it was! 🙂 Then, for supper we had chicken or some kind of beef and vegetables (most of which I didn’t like – I’d wrap my green beans in a slice of bread!) and cornbread and dried beans of some sort. I gradually began to like various veggies, though, so perseverance does pay off! I’d give the world to sit around that kitchen table one more time, with my daddy stirring, stirring his iced tea telling either about his dreams over breakfast or his day at work and who he’d picked up on the job and taken to lunch. Such sweet memories. I can hear Momma singing “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” right this minute while she cooks.
I love this Grape Salad. We don’t have children to pass these memories on to, but I hold them dear to my heart and the little bit that I cook, I cook with my Momma in my heart as well. She would have loved this recipe and Daddy would have, too. You’re a treasure.