This easy Fresh Fruit Salad is a perfect refreshing side dish for your picnics, potlucks or BBQ. Made with a colorful combination of sweet seasonal fruits, drizzled with simple Ginger Honey Lime Dressing (or lemon), this fresh fruit salad recipe is sure to be the star of your table. You just can't stop eating this summer salad with fruits as a light meal, snack or a healthy dessert.
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Why you will love this Salad?
You just can't beat homemade fruit salads; they are the best, always! Homemade fresh fruit salad like this one is much better and tastier than those store-bought fruit cuts or pre-made salads. It's healthy, fresh, juicy, and oh-so-delicious!
A rainbow fruit salad bowl with the winning combination of strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, kiwis, oranges, grapes, bananas and mangoes(when in season) is the best way to cool you off on a hot day! Kids will love this colorful fruity meal, as this salad is tasty, appealing to their eyes, and nutritious for their body.
This Classic Fresh Fruit Salad Recipe:
- is so simple, yet full of flavors and nutrients.
- takes only few minutes of your active time to put together with very little effort.
- is a perfect way to use different fruits (whatever is in season) in one bowl.
- is amazingly refreshing, and sweet with citrus hint and freshness of mint.
- can be customized as per your liking.
- does not require artificial flavors or pudding mix packs.
- is made without mayonnaise, frozen whipped cream or heavy cream salad dressing.
- has all the natural ingredients that makes this salad really shine out.
- is a perfect way to eat fruits all year round.
I love how my recipe for fresh fruit salad has all the pluses, and I am pretty sure I have given you enough reasons to love this delightful bowl of nature's bounty!
Ingredients
Choosing the Fruits: I prefer to choose vibrant combination of summer fruits for the best flavors. Try and imagine the fruit colors with red, yellow, orange, blue and green hues coming together in bowl to give gorgeous salad!
If you see below in the picture, I have used my two favorite combinations here: The first one is with mangoes when they are at peak in local market or stores during summers. Second is the evergreen combination of fruits that you can enjoy all year round.
- Strawberries: Choose sweet ripe strawberries without dark spots, mold or blemishes.
- Pineapple: Pick a pineapple with sweet smell, as they ripe, the skin turns yellow with a slight give when pressed.
- Blueberries: The juicier the blueberries, they sweeter they are.
- Mandarin Oranges: I love mandarin oranges in fruit salads, feel free to use tangerines or navel oranges instead.
- Bananas: I love to add bananas here in this recipe. Choose yellow skin bananas that are ripe and sweet but not mushy.
- Kiwis: Pick slightly soft and ripe kiwis for this salad, ensure they are not firm or they will be unripe and sour.
- Grapes: l have used seedless variety plump red and green grapes in this recipe.
- Mangoes: I love to use mango in my salads when they are plenty in market during summer. Feel free to skip them altogether, if you wish.
- Fresh Mint: Adds so much flavor and freshness.
Fruit Salad Dressing
Good fruit salads should have plump ripe fruits and a simple dressing that pulls out all the flavors from the fruits very well giving a correct balance of natural sweetness, tartness and freshness. So, the combination of Honey with citrus like lime juice, orange juice or lemon juice is simply divine, the best!
Honey lime dressing (or Honey lemon dressing) helps to keep the fruit salad fresh for longer time slowing down the process of oxidation (fruits turning brown). At times, I even add grated ginger or a dash of vanilla extract to the dressing as it compliments the flavor of honey and citrus really well.
Here I am sharing with you my two favorite dressings for the fresh fruit salads:
- Honey Lemon Dressing with Vanilla Extract
- Ginger Honey Lime Dressing - this is my absolute favorite and goes perfect with this recipe!
Note: I highly recommend you to make one of my recipe for fruit salad dressings, you are going to love it for sure! Both the salad dressings go great with this fruit salad. That said, feel free to skip ginger or vanilla, if you do not like it!
How to make Fruit Salad?
Prepare the fruits: Wash or rinse your fruits and berries well, drain the water completely and dry them. Slice or chop all the fruits (except blueberries, or raspberries and blackberries if using) of same bite sized pieces and place into a large bowl.
Make the dressing: Combine honey, lime juice and grated ginger in bowl and whisk. You can do this step in advance and refrigerate the dressing until use. Note: When ready to serve, leave the dressing at the counter to rest for 15-20 minutes before tossing the salad.
Toss the fruits: Pour ginger honey lime dressing over the salad and give a gentle toss. Add fresh mint leaves and serve!
FAQs
No! I do not recommend using frozen fruits for this salad recipe. You will want to use only fresh fruits that are at your hands or whatever you can find! Frozen fruits release too much water and become mushy as it thaws!
Like other salads, you can certainly slice and chop the fruits 24 hours ahead of time, BUT, slice the bananas and toss the salad with the dressing just before serving. Keep in mind to store the diced fruits separately in clean airtight containers.
Expert Tips
- Try and use variety of fresh ripe fruits for the best flavors, colors and textures.
- You may want to plan ahead and buy kiwis, pineapple and mangoes a few days in advance as they may take time to ripen at home.
- Wash your fruits or berries well, and thoroughly dry them before dicing. You don't want any excess water sitting at the bottom of the salad in bowl.
- Dice or slice all the fruits of similar bite sized pieces.
- If you are using lemon juice, you may want to scale down the amount as lemon is more tart than lime.
- Give a firm roll to your lime (or lemon) on the counter for few seconds to get the most juice out of it.
- If using fruits like apple or pear, drizzle a little bit of citrus (lime or lemon juice) as this will keep them from browning.
- As the bananas turns brown quickly, slice and add them to the salad right before serving.
Optional Add-ins or Variation
Feel free to mix up your favorite fruit or any kind of fresh fruits that are available in season. Some of the best options to include as add-in or as a variation are:
You can add plum, peaches, nectarines, cherries, raspberries, blackberries in summer. Cantaloupe, watermelon and honey dew is a big "NO" for me in this fresh fruit salad, that said, feel free to include any of these if you like. You can also add apple and pear fruit to this salad.
If you are also looking for a good salad option for Fall/Winter, I recommend this Apple Pear and Pomegranate Fall Salad and Winter Fruits Salad Recipe.
Serve
This vibrant, colorful and oh so yummy fresh fruit salad is great to serve as an appetizer, side dish, for breakfast or brunch with Pancakes or French Toast, crepes, waffles, as a snack or a dessert on any occasion. A scoop of vanilla ice-cream with fruits salad is a forever classic combination kids love to enjoy!
Storage
To store the leftover fruit salad (if any) in a clean airtight container for up to 3 days in the refrigerator. You can also turn the leftover salad into fruit smoothie.
More Delicious Fruit Salad Recipes:
- Peach Salad with Burrata
- Spinach Strawberry Salad
- Watermelon Feta salad
- Strawberry Salad
- Kale Mango Salad
If you made this recipe for my Fresh Fruits Salad, please be sure to rate and review it below!
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Fresh Fruit Salad Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 cups Strawberries (hulled and sliced or diced)
- 2 cups Pineapple (diced)
- 4 Kiwis (peeled and diced)
- 2 cups Blueberries
- 4 Mandarin Oranges (peeled and sectioned)
- 2 cups Grapes (sliced into halves)
- 2 Bananas (sliced)
- 2 Mangoes - optional (peeled and diced)
Ginger Honey Lime Dressing
- 4 tablespoons Honey
- 2 tablespoons Lime Juice
- ¾ teaspoon Ginger - optional (grated)
- Fresh Mint for garnish
Instructions
- Place all the sliced and chopped fruits in a large mixing bowl.
- In a small bowl, combine honey, lime juice and grated ginger in bowl and whisk.
- Pour ginger honey lime dressing over the fruit salad and give a gentle toss. Add fresh mint leaves and serve!
Notes
- Wash or rinse your fruits or berries well, and thoroughly dry them before dicing. You don't want any excess water sitting at the bottom of the salad in bowl.
- Dressing: You can use Honey Lemon Vanilla Dressing instead of Ginger Honey Lime Dressing - combine 4 tablespoons honey with 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 teaspoon lemon zest and ½ teaspoon vanilla extract in small bowl and whisk well. Drizzle over salad and toss.
- Make Ahead: you can certainly slice and chop the fruits 24 hours ahead of time. You can prepare the dressing in advance and refrigerate until use. When ready to serve, leave the dressing at the counter to rest for 15-20 minutes before tossing the salad.
- Bananas: As these tend to turn dark quickly, slice and add them to the salad right before serving.
- Browning: If you are using fruits like apple or pear, drizzle a little bit of citrus (lime or lemon juice) to keep from browning.
- Frozen Fruits: I do not recommend using frozen fruits, tinned or canned fruit for this salad recipe, fresh fruits works best!
- Vegan: Feel free to use Maple syrup instead of honey to make vegan fruits salad.
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