Easy Summer Fruit Salad Recipe (Refreshing and Delicious)

• Food: Fruit Salad
• Writer: Nicolas Wilson
• Content-Type: Food Blog

This simple fruit salad will be the highlight of your next picnic! It’s light and refreshing, thanks to berries, peaches, and a zingy ginger dressing.

I’ve uploaded a variety of fruit salad recipes over the years (see here, here, and here), but I’ve never posted a classic fruit salad recipe. I’m not sure why, but I like to eat summer fruits with savory dishes rather than on their own.

Pizza with peaches? I’ve given it a shot. Cherries and cheese, anyone? Done.

However, our CSA has recently provided us with some beautiful berries. I’ve had a hard time not eating them all straight from the box because they’ve been so sweet, juicy, and tasty.

I wanted to show them off in a way that was both basic and contemporary. Fruit salad appeared to be the ideal remedy.

“Do I really need a recipe for how to prepare fruit salad?” you might wonder. I can’t say I blame you. Fruit salad can be produced in a variety of ways, using any combination of ripe, in-season fruits.

However, this recipe, in my opinion, is exceptionally wonderful. It includes my favorite summer fruits, such as peaches, berries, and cherries.

It’s especially fresh and vibrant thanks to a zingy citrus-ginger dressing. I toss a handful of basil and mint on top since I can never have enough basil and mint in the summer.

This is a recipe that Jack and I have been enjoying lately, and I hope you will as well! It’ll be excellent for the Fourth of July this weekend, but we’ll be making it all summer for cookouts and picnics.

How to Make It?

This recipe for fresh fruit salad is simple and quick to prepare. This is what you must do:

1. Make the fruit salad dressing first. Whisk together lemon juice, lime juice, maple syrup, ginger, and salt in a medium mixing basin.
2. Then combine everything! In a large mixing bowl, add the herbs and cut fruit, then pour in the dressing and toss to blend. Add more basil and mint for garnish when ready to serve. That concludes our discussion.

When the fruit is brilliant, crisp, and juicy, I like this salad the day it’s cooked. If you’re cooking it ahead of time for a barbeque or picnic, you can prepare it up to 6 hours ahead of time, but save the herbs for the last minute.

The salad is still delicious the next day, but the chopped fruits will soften overnight and release some of their juices.

Tips for Fruit Salad

• Seasonal shopping is recommended. There are numerous reasons to purchase in-season produce, but the most basic is that it tastes better! Make this dish in the summer when peaches, berries, and cherries are fresh and juicy for the finest flavor.
• Purchase the peaches ahead of time. It’s quite impossible to get a perfect peach in the supermarket, so prepare ahead of time! Purchase the peaches ahead of time and let them mature at room temperature for a few days. Place them in the fridge once they’ve softened until you’re ready to use them in this recipe.
• Switch things up a little. This mix of berries, cherries, and peaches is one of my favorites, but other fruits would be delicious as well! Substitute nectarines or mango for the peaches, or add blackberries, melons, apricots, or plums. Pick whatever looks best at the farmers market or at the shop, and try to get a range of shapes, colors, and textures.
• Taste and adjust as needed. This may seem like an odd suggestion for a fruit salad recipe, but just like any other salad, you want a good balance of flavors in this one. Drizzle in additional maple syrup if you want your fruit salad to be sweeter. If you want it to be brighter, add more lemon. Have a good time and personalize it!

Suggestions for Serving

This simple fruit salad is the ideal summer side dish! Serve it with veggie burgers, BBQ jackfruit sandwiches, portobello mushroom burgers, or Caprese sandwiches for a picnic or cookout.

I recommend grilled vegetables, corn on the cob, or any of these summer salad ideas if you need more side dishes to fill out the meal:

• Pasta Salad Made Simple
• Broccoli Salad
• Salad Caprese (Classic Caprese Salad)
• Macaroni Salad
• Greek Salad
• Salad with Chickpeas from the Mediterranean

Keep any leftover summer fruit salad in the refrigerator for up to two days. For breakfast or dessert, I like to have the leftovers with Greek yogurt, oats, and a drizzle of honey!

Fruit Salad

This simple fruit salad is a refreshing summer side dish. I use peaches, berries, and cherries in the zingy citrus-ginger dressing, but any fresh fruit would work well. Suggestions can be seen in the post above!

Ingredients

Dressing

• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• ½ teaspoon grated ginger
• 1 teaspoon maple syrup, more if desired
• Pinch of sea salt

For the salad

• 10 strawberries, sliced
• 2 peaches, sliced
• ½ cup Bing cherries, pitted and sliced
• ½ cup blueberries
• ¼ cup fresh basil, more for garnish
• ½ cup raspberries
• ¼ cup fresh mint, more for garnish

Instructions

1. Whisk together the lemon juice, lime juice, maple syrup, ginger, and salt in a medium mixing basin.
2. Toss the strawberries, peaches, cherries, blueberries, raspberries, basil, and mint in a large mixing dish. Toss the salad in the dressing to coat it. Serve garnished with basil and mint.