
Craving for a delightful dessert? We have just the right thing for you. This buko salad recipe is a very popular Filipino dessert recipe that’s practically always there whenever there is a party. Filipinos love their coconuts and put the ingredients in any Filipino recipe they can think of, including their desserts.
Did you know that the Philippines is the second-largest export of coconut in the world? Yup. Just right behind Indonesia. The abundance of coconut in this country brought the existence of several coconut dessert recipes, one of the most prominent of those is buko salad. It’s a very refreshing dessert because it needs to be chilled in the freezer before serving.
I personally like it my buko salad that’s close to being frozen. I like the feeling of the icy grated coconuts melting in my mouth and the sound of the ice crunching as I chew. I’m also very fond of the texture smooth texture of the fruits.
It’s a favorite dessert amongst many Filipinos, especially because of the hot and humid climate in this country. Plus, after a flavorful meal of Filipino dishes, a cup or bowl of buko salad is a nice palate cleanser.
Buko salad is made up of various different fruits that are cut in half and combined together by raked young coconut meat and milk. Put that in the freezer overnight and you’ll have the delicious buko salad ready to serve for your guests and yourself.
It’s one of the most popular dessert items in restaurants other than halo-halo. And it’s very easy to prepare at home as well, which adds to why buko salad is never absent on the table during a feast. I remember my grandparents making it some nights and having it for merienda the next dayjust cause they feel like.
Fresh fruits are ideal for this recipe but most people pretty much just use canned fruits that can be brought anywhere as long as they varied and colorful. The only fresh product that’s in this recipe is the young bolu which you have to but at the market.
I literally never tried a buko salad that’s made with fresh fruit other than the young buko. But that’s okay because the rise of buko salad’s popularity is because of how inexpensive it is and how easy it is to make. Maybe in the future, we’ll develop a buko salad recipe using fresh fruits. I’m not sure how that will turn out.
Buko salad also see an exponential rise in popularity during the holidays. The colorful fruits blankets by the white grated coconuts and milk just screams festive and celebration. No Filipino feast is complete without at least one dessert and most of the time, they’re made up of grated coconut, milk, and colorful ingredients.
Now buko salad is very easy to make but I noticed over the years that not all are created equal. I think its the ratio of the ingredients put together can be tricky and we just need to find that perfect balance. Don’t get me wrong, the buko salad that I tried that isn’t that balanced is still delicious but it could be better.
So for years, we’ve experimented and experimented until we finally came up with a buko salad recipe that we’re satisfied with and we’re finally happy to share with you all. It’s the perfect ratio of fruits, coconut, and milk that would satisfy just about anyone.
All of the ingredients and their measurements are listed down below. The instructions for this recipe is very easy to follow and we enumerated the step by step guide on how to do down below as well. Enjoy!
Buko Salad Recipe

Buko Salad Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 cups young coconut buko, shredded
- 12 ounces coconut gel nata de coco, drained
- 8 ounces pineapple chunks drained
- 7 ounces table cream
- 6 ounces sugar palm fruit kaong, drained
- 2 cans fruit cocktail drained
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, combine young coconut, kaong, nata de coco, pineapple chunks, and fruit cocktail. Gently stir to distribute the ingredients.
- Add sweetened condensed milk and table cream. Mix until all the ingredients are properly distributed.
- Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or place in the freezer for 1 hour.
- Transfer to a serving bowl.
- Serve for dessert.
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