Easy Fruit Salad

Easy Fruit Salad makes the perfect side dish to any meal! Colorful, healthy, delicious, and filled with all your favorite fruits!

We love fruit sides for any meal, which is why we love this Fruit Salad – especially in the summer. For more of our favorite fruit salads, try Ambrosia Salad, Fall Fruit Salad, or Cheesecake Fruit Salad.

Fresh Fruit Salad

There is nothing quite as refreshing as a fresh Fruit Salad! I love preparing all of my favorite fruits, and mixing them together! The flavors combine in such a light and refreshing way.

A big bowl of colorful fruit makes the best side dish to any dinner. It’s also the best dish to bring to a party, picnic, or BBQ.

I love how simple this easy Fruit Salad recipe is to put together, but what a big impact it makes on a meal. Sometimes we even eat our Fruit Salad for dessert, and top it with cool whip or Whipped Cream – or not!

This easy Fruit Salad has a tasty dressing that is poured over all of the fruit. If you’ve never tried a fruit salad dressing, you’re going to love it! It’s a Fruit Salad game changer.

How to make fruit salad

We love to think of all of our favorite fruits and go from there. You can’t really go wrong with any fruit for this recipe. These are some of our favorites for fruit salad:

• grapes (red and green)
• strawberries
• kiwi
• blackberries
• pineapple chunks

FRUIT. This salad is as easy as it looks. Toss all of your prepared fruit together in a big bowl. Set aside while you make the yummy dressing!

DRESSING. Combine orange juice, pineapple juice and brown sugar in a small pot over medium high heat. Bring this mixture to a boil. Lower the heat, and simmer for 5 minutes. Take the pot off the heat, add vanilla. Let cool completely.

CHILL + SERVE. Pour the dressing over the fruit, mix to combine. Chill for 1 hour before serving!

Variations

• Add in your favorite fruits. cherries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, peaches, apples, and mandarin oranges.
• Naturally sweeten the fruit with honey lime dressing, or maple syrup.
• Add a little extra sweetness with some mini marshmallows, maraschino cherries, or toasted coconut mixed into your fruit salad. Top with Whipped Cream.
• For an even easier dressing, sprinkle on ⅓ package of instant white chocolate or vanilla pudding mix over your fruit. We love it!

TIPS + Storing

You are going to love how easily this refreshing Fruit Salad comes together! Here are some suggestions for when you’re ready to put it all together:

• Don’t toss together too many fruits, stick to 4-6 different fruits in a salad.
• Choose fruits with different colors and textures.
• Use fruit that is in season; it tends to be more fresh, and cost effective. 
• Use equal amounts of each type of fruit, cut them all to similar sizes.
• Toss in fresh herbs. Fresh mint pairs well with citrus, and fresh basil is great with berries.
• The best way to avoid a soggy salad is to avoid using fruit with a high water content, such as watermelon. Bananas tend to get soggy and slimy, avoid these, or add right before serving.

If you use fruit that tends to brown, like apples and pears, you’ll want to treat them before tossing into the salad. One of the easiest ways to do so is to use Ball’s Fresh Fruit powder. You can also soak them in water with lemon juice or lime juice. 

Storing info

Make this salad up to one day in advance. Let the Fruit Salad chill in the fridge over night, or until you’re ready to serve it. I recommend not pouring the dressing on until closer to serving.

STORE any leftover fruit salad in an airtight container in the fridge for 1-2 days.

We don’t recommend FREEZING leftovers for serving as a fruit salad later, since the fruit will be mushy when you thaw it. However, we do have a great tip for you! 

Store any extra Fruit Salad in freezer Ziploc bags, then add the fruit to your smoothies.

For more fruity recipes, check out:

• Fruit Pizza
• Cheesecake Fruit Salad
• Yogurt Fruit Dip
• Mini Fruit Tarts
• Granola Parfaits
• Fruit Smoothie