Fruit salads

[Franci]

I'd like to make some fruit salads, keeping the fruits separated or just combining a couple fruits at the time.

What are you favorite ways to enhance the taste of a particular fruit? I'm not planning on using alcohol.

Ideas to share?

[Kerry Beal]

I'm not a lot of help to you I'm afraid. When I make fruit salad I always add a bit of Grand Marnier!

[Darienne]

And I'm not exciting. We often have a fruit salad for dinner. We enhance it with a bit of orange juice, that's all. Into a bowl with some granola or toasted nuts on top. Any combination of fresh and frozen fruits we have on hand, but always a banana for some sweetness.

[toolprincess]

Growing up my mom used to make an apple salad - apples, raisins, celery and pecans. She used a mayo and sugar dressing - with maybe a little vinegar to thin it out. Every now and then I get a craving for it but I only use tart crisp apples - my mom used red delicious which are my least fave.

[Jaymes]

Growing up my mom used to make an apple salad - apples, raisins, celery and pecans. She used a mayo and sugar dressing - with maybe a little vinegar to thin it out. Every now and then I get a craving for it but I only use tart crisp apples - my mom used red delicious which are my least fave.

I think that's basically a Waldorf salad, although traditionally walnuts are used.

But my mom didn't much care for walnuts, so she often used pecans.

I also made it often. It's always on our holiday table, although now I use crasins, rather than raisins. My kids like them better.

Still, it's not Thanksgiving or Christmas at our house without Waldorf Salad.

Edited February 2, 2014 by Jaymes (log)

[SylviaLovegren]

A bit of sugar or honey if the fruit needs it and then some citrus -- lemon, lime or orange, depending on the fruits involved, what's available and my mood.

A recent happy combination was fresh pineapple with pomegranate seeds.

Grapefruit sections with pomegranate with some honey was also a happy combo. (Can you tell that CostCo had pomegranate arils on sale?)

Kiwi and banana with some lime juice is good.

An old trick is to marinate some of the fruits in champagne (or ginger ale) before mixing them into the salad.

[FauxPas]

Not really sure what you are looking for, because it sounds like you might want to really simplify - maybe just one fruit? Would you be serving with greens or any other additions?

There's a nice little article on fruit salads at BuzzFeed, especially the little formula for dressing - citrus juice + fresh herb + honey or syrup. It might be modified though to something like - something acidic + something herbal and/or spicy + something sweet (and possibly oil, if serving with greens) + nuts/cheese (optional).

http://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelysanders/ideas-for-how-to-make-amazing-fruit-salads

The acidic can be citrus juice or a balsamic or other flavoured vinegar or wine. I like strawberries marinated with red wine and sugar, and I've seen suggestions for dressing it up with a bit of vanilla bean, star anise, black pepper or orange peel. I have a White Balsamic Raspberry Blush Vinegar that I've used with fruit.

Some of the suggestions play with the usual type of food variations - play with colour (same or different), play with texture (hard/soft), play with taste (sharp/creamy.)

Pomegranate seeds with pear on greens, dressed with a pomegranate vinaigrette and some walnuts and cheese and black pepper.

I liked the idea of using cucumber or radishes or tomato or avocado or even carrots in some fruit salads. I love jicama with mixed citrus supremes.

The dressing can use spices like cardamon or chile powder or cumin. Mint or basil.

Grilled pineapple or peaches, mmmm!

[Jaymes]

Not really sure what you are looking for, because it sounds like you might want to really simplify - maybe just one fruit? Would you be serving with greens or any other additions?

There's a nice little article on fruit salads at BuzzFeed, especially the little formula for dressing - citrus juice + fresh herb + honey or syrup. It might be modified though to something like - something acidic + something herbal and/or spicy + something sweet (and possibly oil, if serving with greens) + nuts/cheese (optional).

http://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelysanders/ideas-for-how-to-make-amazing-fruit-salads

That buzzfeed site is really great. So many good ideas.

When I was growing up, every single meal had to have a salad. Just how it was. Oftentimes, a tossed green salad of some sort. Frequently vegetables or fruit were added. But, depending upon the meal served, of course, we often had just a fruit salad of some type.

One of Mom's favorites on busy days was to place on everyone's salad plate one lettuce leaf, then a scoop of cottage cheese, then a pear half topped with some sort of cheese - blue cheese crumbles, or shredded Cheddar, etc.

If it was a tossed fruit salad, Mom would usually take two oranges. She'd supreme one-and-a-half and put those into the salad bowl. Then squeeze the left-over half into the bowl and stir in some honey to make the dressing. You can also make poppy-seed dressing, probably the most favorite of the fruit salad dressings in the US, although it's considerably heavier and sweeter than my family prefers. Still, it's good, if you use a very light hand when adding it to your salad.

Another classic, Franci, is grapefruit supremes with slices of avocado and sweet red onions. You can dress it with practically anything, but vinegar & oil is my favorite.

Also, in Mexico and the US Southwest, we almost always sprinkle tropical fruits with a chile/lime/salt concoction. Tajin is probably the most popular and well-known commercial preparation. Although it's possible you could find it there if you have any markets that cater to a Mexican expat population, you can basically accomplish the same thing by adding a sprinkle of some sort of chile powder in with your salt and squeeze of lemon or lime.

Hot chile powder is unexpected, but one you've had a sprinkle of something like Tajin on your mango, you don't ever want to go back!

http://www.amazon.com/Tajin-Fruit-Snack-Seasoning-5-0/dp/B0000GL6RK

Edited February 2, 2014 by Jaymes (log)

[Plantes Vertes]

Maybe this topic needs some clarification. To me a fruit salad is just fruit, no savoury ingredients; evidently this is not what is meant in the USA. I wonder which Franci meant?

[Jaymes]

Maybe this topic needs some clarification. To me a fruit salad is just fruit, no savoury ingredients; evidently this is not what is meant in the USA. I wonder which Franci meant?

Can't speak for every United Statesian but, for me anyway, any salad that has fruit as a main component, counts.

[kayb]

I love to use sweetened creme fraiche with fresh berries of any description. There's a dressing of mustard and honey, a little rice vinegar, and some vegetable oil that I like on a salad of fresh figs and grapes. I do a salad of cantaloupe chunks with diced fresh mozzarela with a dressing of lime juice and vegetable oil, then sprinkled with a little grated parm. I also like cider vinegar and sugar heated to dissolve the sugar, then mixed with some sour cream or Greek yogurt. A good homemade balsamic viniagrette is marvelous with watermelon or strawberries. I love fresh peaches with white balsamic vinegar and sugar.

[Franci]

Maybe this topic needs some clarification. To me a fruit salad is just fruit, no savoury ingredients; evidently this is not what is meant in the USA. I wonder which Franci meant?

I posted this originally in pastry because my question was for fruits as dessert not in savory salads. What are your favorite syrups, herbs, sweeteners, spices for different fruits? grapefruit with a star anise syrup as an example.

[teagal]

Years ago in Gourmet magazine, I read to mix peaches with maple syrup and mint. Its good. I like vanilla with oranges too.

[Mjx]

Strawberries (if you can get any that have flavour at this time of year) with black pepper and a good balsamic vinegar, and pineapple with caramel/butterscotch and a pinch of smoked salt tend to go over pretty well with a wide range of people.

I have one foot in the US, and one in the EU, so to speak, and pretty much everywhere I've been, fruit salad seems to be one that is built around fruit and predominantly sweet ingredients; once leaves, animal products, and various savory elements figure in to a large extent, too, it's 'salad with/that includes fruit', rather than 'fruit salad'.

[SylviaLovegren]

Maybe this topic needs some clarification. To me a fruit salad is just fruit, no savoury ingredients; evidently this is not what is meant in the USA. I wonder which Franci meant?

I posted this originally in pastry because my question was for fruits as dessert not in savory salads. What are your favorite syrups, herbs, sweeteners, spices for different fruits? grapefruit with a star anise syrup as an example.

A Saudi fruit salad I had once used a boiled honey syrup with cardamom that was cooled then mixed with melons and orange sections. Delicious.

My dad used to make a zabaglione with pineapple juice instead of the marsala, then use that to dress a pineapple based fruit salad. That was once very common in the US but it has pretty much disappeared. Due for a comeback!

[Shel_B]

I've not said anything because I like my fruit plain, either a single fruit or a combination. However, when you mentioned dressings, I got to thinking about a fruit salad we had at a friend's place some months ago. I don't recall the assortment of fruits she included, but she made a very simple dressing that we all enjoyed:

Cathy's Honey Yogurt Sauce

2 cups yogurt

2 Tbs honey

½ tsp vanilla extract

OR

seeds from 1 vanilla pod

cinnamon to taste

Stir together, adjust seasoning

This seems to go nicely with a variety of fruits.