This Summer Fruit Salad is the ideal combination of chopped seasonal, summer fruits with perfect fruit salad dressing!
It’s a great salad to use as a side dish for a summer BBQ, or as a snack during those hot summer days. It’s refreshing, light, and tastes absolutely incredibly every single time!
It has a delicious combination of summer fruits like dragon fruit, mangoes, green grapes, blueberries, and blackberries! It’s the perfect healthy dessert and is seriously an absolute crowd-pleaser every single time!
For the best results, I recommend making this salad during summer when all these fruits are still in season. But even though it’s called a summer fruit salad, you can choose to use this recipe any time of the year!
Just switch out for some seasonal fruits, and you’ll always end up with the best fresh fruit salad ever!
You’re seriously going to love this easy fruit salad recipe! It’s seriously easy to make and tastes great even the next day!
Want to learn how to make this delicious Summer Fruit Salad? Then keep on reading!
Table of Contents
- What’s a Summer Fruit Salad?
- Why You’ll Love This Simple Summer Fruit Salad Recipe
- What Makes This Summer Fruit Salad the Best One You’ll Ever Have
- What You Need to Make Summer Fruit Salad at Home
- How to Make Summer Fruit Salad (Step-by-Step)
- Fruit Variations for Your Summer Fruit Salad
- Tips to Make the Best Fruit Salad at Home
- How to Store Leftover Fruit Salad
- Similar Salad Recipes
- Recipe Card
- Comments
What’s a Summer Fruit Salad?
A Summer Fruit Salad is the perfect combination of chopped seasonal, summer fruits mixed with a light fruit salad dressing.
It’s the perfect summer side dish, snack, dessert, or can even be eaten for brunch!
This fruit salad is called summer fruit salad, but it may be made all year. If you don't like any of the fruits included in this recipe, you can always change them out for what's in season or what you have on hand!
It’s an incredibly refreshing and light salad, and my recipe takes it to the next level! Most other fruit salads have a heavy salad dressing, but not this recipe!
This recipe uses a secret ingredient as a salad dressing which not only makes everything taste better but also goes well with literally every single fruit! Any guesses as to what that ingredient is?
Maple syrup. Yep, a simple, delicious maple syrup makes for the most delicious fruit salad dressing ever. You have got to try it out to know what I mean!
Why You’ll Love This Simple Summer Fruit Salad Recipe
There are so many recipes why you’ll absolutely love this simple summer fruit salad recipe, but here are my top two reasons:
- You’ll come across a lot of fruit salad recipes online that have a mix of ingredients you need to make the ‘sauce’ or dressing to toss all the fruits in. But that only takes away from the delicious flavors of the fruits themselves. That’s why for this recipe all you need is one ingredient to use as the dressing: maple syrup. It goes so well with literally every fruit that it’s going to become your go-to dressing for any fruit salad!
- The only thing that needs to be done in this salad is to chop. When you're through chopping, combine everything in a large mixing bowl and mix in some maple syrup. Enjoy it for the rest of the week or bring it to a summer BBQ and watch it disappear in minutes.
What Makes This Summer Fruit Salad the Best One You’ll Ever Have
This truly is the best summer fruit salad you’ll ever make! Here’s why:
Easy to make: This summer fruit salad is ridiculously easy to make! All you need to do is chop some fruits and then add some maple syrup to it. Easy peasy, and absolutely delicious!
Super refreshing: The fruit combination in this salad is incredibly refreshing and is the perfect combo for the summer!
Light and delicious: No need to make and add any thick dressing to this salad. This is a super light and delicious salad, and all you need is maple syrup for the dressing!
Great use of seasonal fruit: Mix up all the fruits in season to get the best combination ever! This is also why you can use this recipe for any season by just using whichever fruit is currently in season.
Endless combinations: There can be as many combinations as you can come up with! Go crazy with some delicious berry combination or add some stone fruits to the mix. Seriously, anything goes with this delicious fruit salad recipe.
Simple fruit salad, taken to the next level: You might think that some delicious, chopped fruits are perfect as is, but with a drizzle of maple syrup on top you’re seriously going to take your fruit salad to the next level! It just elevates the flavors and brings them out even more. Want to make it a bit sweeter? Just add a little bit of honey! I promise you won’t be able to stop eating it, it’s that good!
What You Need to Make Summer Fruit Salad at Home
This salad is incredibly versatile! Here are the fruits I recommend you use to make this delicious salad, but you can definitely switch them out for whichever ones are currently in season or ones you prefer more. Let’s take a look at what fruits I recommend:
- Dragon fruit: Dragon fruit adds the perfect mildly sweet flavor to this fresh fruit salad. It has the perfect texture, that’s similar to a ripe kiwi and the maple syrup will really bring out its sweetness.
- Mangoes: Mangoes are the perfect fruit salad ingredient for the summer! They’re citrusy and tart with the perfect tropical floral taste.
- Green grapes: Green grapes add the perfect sweet yet bitter with a tart punch to the salad!
- Blueberries: The light sweet yet acidic taste of blueberries goes incredibly well with all the other fruits here!
- Blackberries: Blackberries are incredibly delicious and have the perfect tart flavor. Go for ripe ones for a sweet and tangy flavor. Unripe ones are usually sour and may even be bitter.
- Maple syrup: All we need for the dressing is some organic maple syrup! Not only will it bring out the sweetness in all the fruits in this salad, but it also adds a delicious touch to everything!
How to Make Summer Fruit Salad (Step-by-Step)
Making this fresh fruit salad is easier than you think! Here’s what you need to do step by step:
Start by rinsing the fruits and patting them dry with a paper towel. Next, peel, dice, or slice all the fruits, and place them into a large bowl.
Next, pour some organic maple syrup over your fruit salad.
Now carefully mix and toss to coat the maple syrup evenly on the chopped fruits.
I prefer mixing this salad with gentle bowl-to bowl-transfers without using a spoon. This is to prevent blackberries and dragon fruit from mashing and losing their shape. Repeat the cycle about 5 times to coat all the dressing and fruit together.
Your delicious fresh summer fruit salad is ready to be served!
Fruit Variations for Your Summer Fruit Salad
Even the best summer fruit salad can be made with very little work! The first step is to choose ingredients that you like.
Even though I've shown you my favorite fruit salad mix above, you can go with any of your favorite fruits. Personally, I try to think about colors and make sure I use as many different colors and textures as I can!
If you can, go to your local farmers' market to get the best fruits that are in season. Otherwise, there are a lot of stores that bring in local produce during the summer as well.
For a sweeter salad, you will want to pick fruit that is ripe and smells good.
In case you choose to use fruits that tend to brown, like apples or pears, I recommend adding a little bit of citrus juice to the salad like lemon juice or orange juice before you add these fruits in. This way they won’t brown so quickly or easily.
Also, cut the fresh fruit into bite-sized pieces. Then, mix everything together in a big bowl and then add in some maple syrup. If you want to make your salad a bit sweeter, you can also lightly drizzle in some honey.
Some great fruit variations for your salad include berries, such as strawberries, raspberries, and other delicious fruits such as pineapple, cherries, plums, peaches, and kiwi. Regardless of which ones you add, you’ll always end up with the perfect fresh summer fruit salad!
Tips to Make the Best Fruit Salad at Home
Making this fruit salad at home is incredibly easy! Here are a few tips to make it the best one you’ve ever had:
Be careful when tossing: I prefer mixing this salad with gentle bowl-to bowl-transfers [not spoon] to prevent blackberries and dragon fruit from mashing and losing their shape. Repeat the cycle about 5 times to coat all the dressing and fruit together.
Chop fruits evenly: To make the fruit salad easier to eat, try to cut all the fruit in even sizes. I recommend making sure that the fruit is bite-sized.
Shop in season: There are many reasons to purchase fruits that are in season, but the most important one is that it tastes better! For the best taste, make this recipe in the summer when all the fruits I've mentioned are still in season!
Change it up: I absolutely love the combination of dragon fruit, mangoes, blueberries, blackberries, and green grapes but you can use whichever ones you love the most! Try some strawberries, pineapples, kiwis, or whichever fruit is in season when you’re whipping up this fresh fruit salad.
Taste and adjust: This salad recipe only uses maple syrup as the perfect salad dressing, but I still recommend tasting the salad and adjusting it. Sometimes, some fruits are tarter than others, especially depending on which ones you end up using. So, taste it and check if you’d like to drizzle on some more maple syrup for the perfect balance of flavors!
How to Store Leftover Fruit Salad
If you have leftover summer fruit salad, store it in the fridge for up to 2 days. I love to eat the leftovers with Greek yogurt, granola, and a drizzle of honey for breakfast or dessert!
Similar Salad Recipes
- Tropical Fruit Salad
- Healthy Winter Fruit Salad
- Pear Apple Pomegranate Pecan Spinach Salad Recipe
- Melon Fruit Salad with Honey Lime and Watermelon Juice Dressing
Check out more salad recipes!
Recipe Card
The Best Summer Fruit Salad Recipe (Quick and Easy to Make)
Ingredients
- 2 - dragon fruit
- 2 – mango’s
- 8 oz. – green grapes
- 1 lb. – blueberries
- 1 lb. – blackberries
- ⅓ cup – Organic Maple Syrup (Salad Dressing)
Instructions
How to Make Summer Fruit Salad
- Making this fresh fruit salad is easier than you think! Here’s what you need to do step by step:
- Start by rinsing the fruits and patting them dry with a paper towel. Next, peel, dice, or slice all the fruits, and place them into a large bowl.
- Next, pour some organic maple syrup over your fruit salad.
- Now carefully mix and toss to coat the maple syrup evenly on the chopped fruits.
- I prefer mixing this salad with gentle bowl-to bowl-transfers without using a spoon. This is to prevent blackberries and dragon fruit from mashing and losing their shape. Repeat the cycle about 5 times to coat all the dressing and fruit together.
- Your delicious fresh summer fruit salad is ready to be served!
Notes
- I prefer mixing this salad with gentle bowl-to bowl-transfers [not spoon] to prevent from blackberries and dragon fruit from mashing and losing its shape. Repeat the cycle about 5 times to coat all the dressing and fruit together
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Natasha says
Wow! I tried this fruit salad at my sisters in laws house and we all couldn’t stop eating it. It doesn’t just looks fancy and pretty but it tastes so good!!! I tried different kinds of fruit salads before and this one is the best of all of them!!! Defiantly will be making it myself for my family and parties.
Valya's Taste of Home says
I'm thrilled to hear that you enjoyed the salad! Thank you for your feedback and an amazing review!
Jennifer says
Is there a suggestion for a substitute dressing choice? I'm not a fan of maple syrup, but love the idea of the fruit choices.
Valya of Valya's Taste of Home says
Use honey instead of maple syrup. I didn't like maple syrup before until just recently (a few years back) when I tried the real organic kind. I hope this helps! 🙂
Michelle G. says
Wow, this is one beautiful salad! You can almost eat the screen. I’ll be making it for this weekends birthday party. Thanks for sharing!
Valya of Valya's Taste of Home says
Sweet! I know everyone will love it! Thank you for an amazing review! 🙂