Fruit Salad

As my wife was preparing a shopping list for the last run before our Thanksgiving dinner, we discussed sides. One of which is a fruit salad / fruit cup.

I’ll document the fruit salad from my youth. It is rather plain and basic, one can review the notes and consider add ons. As always, do explore and enjoy.

From Wikipedia:

Fruit salad is a dish consisting of various kinds of fruit, sometimes served in a liquid, either their own juices or a syrup. In different forms, fruit salad can be served as an appetizer, a side salad, or a dessert. When served as an appetizer or dessert, a fruit salad is sometimes known as a fruit cocktail (often connoting a canned product), or fruit cup (when served in a small container).

There are many types of fruit salad, ranging from the basic (no nuts, marshmallows, or dressing) to the moderately sweet (Waldorf salad) to the sweet (ambrosia salad). Another “salad” containing fruit is a jello salad, with its many variations. Fruit cocktail is well-defined in the US to mean a well-distributed mixture of small diced pieces of (from highest percentage to lowest) peaches, pears, pineapple, grapes, and cherry halves. Fruit salad may also be canned (with larger pieces of fruit than a cocktail).

There are a number of home recipes for fruit salad that contain different kinds of fruit, or that use a different kind of sauce other than the fruit’s own juice or syrup. Common ingredients used in fruit salads include strawberries, pineapple, honeydew, watermelon, grapes, and kiwifruit. Various recipes may call for the addition of nuts, fruit juices, certain vegetables, yogurt, or other ingredients.

One variation is a Waldorf-style fruit salad, which uses a mayonnaise-based sauce. Other recipes use sour cream (such as in ambrosia), yogurt or even custard as the primary sauce ingredient. A variation on fruit salad uses whipped cream mixed in with many varieties of fruits (usually a mixture of berries), and also often includes miniature marshmallows. Rojak, a Malaysian fruit salad, uses a spicy sauce with peanuts and shrimp paste. In the Philippines, fruit salads are popular party and holiday fare, usually made with buko, or young coconut, and condensed milk in addition to other canned or fresh fruit.

Fruit Cup / Salad

Winter fruits all in a bowl

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Resting time 1 hour hr

Total Time 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Course Salad, Side Dish

Cuisine Southern

Servings 4 people

Calories 303 kcal

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 2 ea Apples Tart, Washed, sliced and cross sliced
• 2 ea Oranges peeled, segmented and cross sliced
• 2 cup Green grapes washed, stemmed, halved
• 1 cup Maraschino Cherries stemmed, halves, with juice
• 1 ea Grapefruit Ruby Red, peeled, segmented and cross sliced
• 2 ea Pears Semi Firm, Washed, sliced and cross sliced
• 8.5 oz Canned Peaches Small can with juice
• 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
• 1.5 oz Bourbon Optional, Good Stuff
• 2 ea Bananas Peeled, sliced to 1/4"

Instructions

 

• Mix all in a non reactive container
• Rest for at least 1 hour
• Serve cold

Notes

A memory from my past,  thanksgiving would not be thanksgiving without a helping of fruit salad to mix into my cornbread stuffing.

This is a simple and basic fruit salad / cocktail.  The difference being the size of the fruit chunk.  I usually go for an apple / pear, wedged to 8ths, thence each slice cut to 1/4″.  Citrus is peeled, segmented and cut to 4-6 pieces per segment.  Grapes and cherries are halved, Canned peaches are cut similar to the citrus.

Note I wash the apple, pears, grapes quite well as I will not be peeling them, and do want the contrasting colors of the peels in the salad.

The “dressing” is a simple maceration due to the sugar, and the optional addition of a good bourbon.

Do feel free to explore, some addons might include:

• Chunk pineapple
• Kiwi
• Berries
• Melon
• Chopped nuts
• Passion Fruit
• Mini Marshmallows
• Pomegranate
• Gelatin / Jello Chunks
• Whipped Cream

 

Nutrition

Calories: 303kcalCarbohydrates: 71gProtein: 1gFat: 1gSaturated Fat: 1gSodium: 12mgPotassium: 308mgFiber: 3gSugar: 67gVitamin A: 273IUVitamin C: 7mgCalcium: 66mgIron: 1mg

Keyword Fruit Mix, Salad

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!