- One of the things that I love about spring and summer
is all of the delicious fruit that's in season.
And there is no better way to show it off and enjoy it
than with a big bowl of fruit salad.
Now I'm sure you're thinking to yourself,
"Oh, I don't need a recipe for a fruit salad.
I mean, how hard is it to slice up a bunch of fruit?"
And the answer is it's not hard at all,
but I do have some tips
to help you make the best fruit salad possible.
So I think today's video is worth the watch.
And besides, you don't wanna miss the bright and zingy
honey-lime dressing that I drizzle on top
that I think is an essential for a fresher, jucier,
and all around more delicious fruit salad.
So let's dive in.
You can make fruit salad with a wide variety of fruit
but I always love an assortment
of about six to eight different fruits
for a vibrant, rainbow-colored salad.
When you're at the market, think in terms of color
and grab fruit with hues of blue, yellow, green,
red and orange.
The first thing you'll wanna do is wash any of the fruit
with the skin that you'll be eating such as these grapes.
Now, I won't show you washing all of the fruit
as that would get a little boring,
but you can wash it in a bowl of water
or under the faucet in a colander.
And after you wash the fruit,
just make sure to dry it thoroughly
so that you don't introduce extra water
into your fruit bowl.
I'll usually just place it on a clean kitchen towel
and pat it dry.
So since I've got the grapes out, we can start with them
and you'll wanna slice about two cups of grapes
and you can use red or green, it's up to you.
You can slice them individually with a knife
or you can use this cool trick
that I learned a few years ago
to slice several grapes at once.
All you have to do is find a plastic lid
from a storage container
or you could use a small plate with a lip on the edge
and the lip just helps to keep the grapes in place.
Then I like to add another lid on top to protect my hands
and also to help hold the grapes in place
and then all you have to do is slice through the middle
with a very sharp knife.
When you're done, you'll have sliced
through a whole bunch of grapes in one fell swoop.
And the great thing about this trick
is that it works for cherry tomatoes
and grape tomatoes as well.
Once you've got your grapes sliced up,
just add them to a large bowl
and you do want a very large bowl
as this is a party-sized portion of fruit salad
that will serve a big group of people.
Next step is pineapple and it's totally worth
grabbing a whole pineapple and slicing it yourself
for the juiciest flavor.
When you grab a pineapple from the market,
the outside should be firm
but have a little bit of give when you press on it.
It should also smell sweet and delicious on the bottom end.
If you don't smell anything, it's probably underripe.
And lastly, I always thought
that if you could easily pull a leaf out from the top
that it meant that it was ripe,
but I have since learned that that's not the case,
it just means you have a loose leaf.
All right, to slice up the pineapple,
cut off the top end and then rotate it around
and slice off the bottom.
Stand it up on end and with a sharp knife,
remove the outer skin.
I try to cut as close to the skin as possible
to not waste any fruit,
which means sometimes I'll have to go back
and trim up any areas
that need a little bit more shaved off the side.
Now, if you look at the top of the pineapple,
you'll see the core in the middle,
which is tough and fibrous.
So to remove that, it's really easy.
You'll just slice right next to the core all the way down
and remove all of the pineapple flesh.
I do this in four slices
and then I'm left with a square core
that I can easily discard.
(joyful music)
From here, you can slice the pineapple
into bite-sized pieces
as big or as little as you'd like for the fruit salad.
There are many methods to cut a pineapple,
but I like this approach
because it also gives me a flat surface here
on the pineapple flesh,
so it doesn't move around on me.
For today's fruit salad recipe,
you'll wanna add half of a pineapple to the fruit salad
which is about two and a half cups cubed.
And what I do is slice up the whole pineapple
and then freeze the remainders
so that I can make my pineapple turmeric smoothie
in the future.
Next step are two mangoes and to prep these
just cut the top and bottom off,
then use a peeler to remove the skin.
If your mangoes are overly ripe and really soft,
it may be difficult to use a peeler,
so then just use a knife.
My first mango is actually a bit underripe today,
but the second one is perfect.
There's an oval-shaped seed in the middle of the mango
and to remove that
you'll wanna slice just off-center on the wide side,
then rotate it and slice the other half off.
Lastly, remove the mango cheeks by slicing around the seed
and then dissect the mango into bite-sized pieces.
Mango adds a wonderful, creamy texture to fruit salad
and I prefer it over banana
which discolors quickly and tends to go mushy.
And here's the flesh from my second mango
which you can see is much brighter and perfectly ripe
which also means it's sweeter.
All right, next is four kiwis
and you'll cut these similarly to the mango.
Remove the top and bottom, use a peeler to remove the skin
and then cut them in half or quarters.
If you prefer smaller pieces, then slice across.
I always love adding kiwi to fruit salads
as it's a beautiful pop of green color
and it's a hefty dose of vitamin C.
Yes, even more than the mandarin orange
which we'll get to here in a second.
So once all of your kiwis are peeled and sliced
add them to the bowl.
For that vibrant red hue
which is always a requirement in fruit salads
add one pound of fresh strawberries,
just remove the stem and cut them in half if they're small
or you can quarter them if they're large
and then add them to the bowl.
Next step, our three mandarin oranges
and I love using mandarin oranges rather than navel oranges
as they're easy to peel and segment,
but if you can only grab navel oranges, that's fine,
just make sure to remove
any white, pithy, stringy bits, as I'm doing here,
before adding them to the bowl.
(joyful music)
And lastly, a fruit that needs no prep is blueberries.
So just add two cups of blueberries to your bowl.
Now, before you add the dressing and stir it all up,
take a second to admire this tasty rainbow of color.
All right, for this simple dressing,
you'll need one teaspoon of lime zest
and you can get that from one lime.
Once that's zested up, juice that same lime
and you'll get about one and a half
to two tablespoons of lime juice.
Pour that into a small bowl
along with two tablespoons of honey.
I don't add a ton of sweetener
as I think the fruit is naturally sweet enough on its own,
but the honey does balance the zingyness of the lime.
So stir that altogether
and then pour it on top of the salad.
(joyful music)
Gently toss the fruit salad to mix everything together
and that's it.
This fruit salad is always a hit at parties,
barbecues, picnics and holidays
and I try to make it just a few hours before serving
so that it maintains that fresh, sweet flavor.
If you have any leftovers,
they'll keep in the fridge for about three to four days
in a sealed container
and you can always turn leftovers that get a bit too soft
into a very tasty fruit smoothie.
(joyful music)
I hope you guys enjoyed this video
and if you did make sure to give it a thumbs up
and share it with your family and friends
and I will see you again in the next video
(joyful music)