2013 – Gluten Free Living

Fresh Fruit Salad is a recipe that is really for those who like me (30+ years ago) have no clue what to put in a fruit salad. I use a lot of melons but then add a few other things to provide texture, color, and sweetness. Obviously, you can mix and match with what you have on hand.

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When peaches are in season, I add fresh peaches. You could also add fresh pears, plums or apples, although you might have to swish the apples in lemon juice or pineapple juice first to prevent browning. Other options are kiwi, mango, pomegranate arils, and blackberries and raspberries (although they tend to get mashed and bleed over the rest of the fruit).

Fresh Fruit Salad is like most fruit salads–it doesn’t have to have exact measurements. You go with what you have on hand and a lot depends on if you’re making it for a family of four or for a potluck and scale up or back accordingly. If you used a whole watermelon, a whole honeydew, a whole cantaloupe, a whole pineapple, and still added other fruit and berries you’re going to have one whopper of a salad.

It will probably take a family of four several days to eat this even if they each eat two bowls a day! We buy these fruits most of the year and cut them down and eat as desired, but when everything is in season and the prices are cheap it’s great to purchase one (or more) of each. So if you do, here is a tasty way to use up some of that fruit. Even most kids will eat fruit salad.

When I first posted this salad in April 2013, I had not yet begun to take pictures with my Canon camera. Once I started taking pictures with that camera (rather than a simple iPhone), I began taking ALL my pictures outside (day or night, rain or shine, windy, freezing or melting temperatures–all my blog pictures are taken outside now.

I set up my displays under our pergola on the back patio. It gives plenty of sunshine without overdoing it except just before sunset. My house is too dark inside because of the Low-E windows and canned lighting to get really good pictures unless I set up a studio–which I have been reluctant to do because I really like natural lighting better. Even though the conditions aren’t always the greatest, I still like the outcomes better.

I’ve been going back through all the blog pictures I took before I started using my Canon–about 400 plus recipes–and remaking all of them so I can get some decent pictures. I recently remade this recipe for a large potluck at our church (May 2015).

Our church secretary asked me to make a big fruit salad, so I made several large bowls of this salad. This expanded version has several berries and oranges included that I didn’t include in the first go round. Still, Fresh Fruit Salad is delicious and definitely pleasing to the eye. Enjoy.

Fresh Fruit Salad is very simple to put together. The hardest part is cutting down the fruit.

Fresh Fruit Salad can be made with just about any fresh fruit you have on hand.

Here’s a close up so you can see the many different textures of this delicious salad.

Here’s what I did.

I used these ingredients.

Cut down a watermelon. I usually discard the rinds in plastic bags before throwing in the trash. (You will not need to use all this unless you are making a salad for 50 people).

Cut up a honeydew, remove the seeds and pulp, cut off the rind and cut in pieces.

Cut up a cantaloupe. Cut in half, scoop out seeds and pulp, cut in slices, remove rind and cut into chunks.

Cut the outside edges of a pineapple, as well as the top leafy structure and the bottom. Either core the middle or slice down and cut off the core pieces.

Peel oranges or tangelos and section them. Cut each section in half.

Wash and slice strawberries. If you have fruit like kiwi it will need to be peeled and sliced. Apples, pears and peaches need to be dipped in pineapple or lemon juice.

To make the salad: Place about 3 cups of watermelon in a large serving bowl. Just eyeball the amount. Add about half of the honeydew melon, about half of the cantaloupe, half of the pineapple, 8-oz. of sliced strawberries, a couple of oranges or tangelos, sectioned and halved, and about a cup each of grapes, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. Stir all the fruit together to combine.

To serve: Spoon fruit into serving dishes. Make sure you get a little bit of each kind of fruit in every serving dish. 

Fresh Fruit Salad is so simple and easy to make yet it appears very beautiful and elegant. You don’t have to add sugar, sauces, dressings or anything else. It’s just very simple using only fresh fruit.

This is such a refreshing salad to serve for dinner during the summer when you don’t want to heat your house by cooking a lot of side dishes.

Here’s the recipe.

FRESH FRUIT SALAD

(My own concoction)

I will tell you this looks extremely elegant in a watermelon that has been scalloped and cut very carefully into a basket shape. My catering partner used to do that all the time when we catered luncheons in New England and it looked quite lovely.

This close up has my mouth watering! Fresh Fruit Salad is so easy to make. Save the other cut up fruit for another fruit salad or to eat solo.

You may also enjoy these delicious recipes!

Pineapple Mango Salad

Tossed Salad with Tropical Fruit

Peachy Fruit Salad