You might be wondering—do you really need a recipe for fruit salad? In this case, we say yes. Our simple honey-citrus dressing takes the delicious
fruit up a notch in this recipe, elevating this classic summer side to whole new heights. Fruit salads are endlessly versatile, but choose the wrong combination of fruits (or assemble it too early), and you’ve got a soggy, less-than-ideal side dish on your hands. No need to stress—we’ve laid out all of our fruit salad tips here, from our favorite fruits to use to how to keep it perfectly fresh for all your upcoming BBQs. Keep reading on for everything you need to know:
The best fruit for fruit salad:
For our fruit salad, we chose a combo of strawberries, blueberries, kiwis, raspberries, oranges, grapes, mangos, and apples. But, you can customize this completely based on your preferences: blackberries, cherries, pineapple, and banana would all be delicious. Tip: If you decide to add banana to your fruit salad, it can quickly become brown and mushy—we recommend waiting to add to the rest of your fruit salad until you’re ready to serve.
How to make the dressing for fruit salad:
It only takes honey, orange juice, and lemon juice to make our sweet, simple dressing. If you don’t eat honey, feel free to sub in agave instead!
Top tips for making the best fruit salad:
— Say no to frozen fruit. When you defrost fruit, it can end up deflated and mushy, which isn’t ideal for fruit salad. We recommend using only fresh, ripe fruit for this salad.
— Keep it fresh. For maximum freshness, hold off on the dressing until it’s time to serve. If you’re concerned about your apples browning too much, try tossing them with a tablespoon of lemon juice and layering them under the rest of the fruit at the bottom of the bowl.
Fruit salad variations:
Looking for other fruit-forward salads to snack on? You can really add whatever fruits you please to this salad, but if you’re looking for more recipe inspo, checkout our Thai watermelon salad, peach and burrata caprese, watermelon feta salad, or ambrosia salad (this one is practically dessert 😉).
Making it ahead:
We recommend prepping the fruit no more than 4 hours in advance—any longer and you’ll start to see the cut fruit shrivel and oxidize (not exactly our idea of delicious). Hold off on preparing the dressing and keep your cut fruit well-covered and refrigerated until it’s time to serve.
Storing fruit salad:
If you have any leftovers, store them in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days. To keep your fruit salad fresh (and to prevent it turning brown), add a few squeezes of lemon juice.
Made this? Let us know how it went in the comments below!