Fruit Salad Recipe for a Crowd

Fruit Salad Recipe for a Crowd is bursting with candy and juicy fruits and berries. This huge batch recipe is ideal for events and potlucks.

We’re knocking on the door to summer season and I for one can’t anticipate heat nights spent outside with family and friends whereas fireflies showcase to a choir of cicadas (ask me how excited I’m for this 12 months’s uncommon cicada season — screaming!)

Along with whipping up batches of Finest Ever Pasta Salad and Judy’s Baked Beans anytime we entertain within the hotter months, I like to have a giant contemporary fruit salad available to spherical out the meal.

A serving bowl of candy and snappy fruit salad for a crowd is refreshing, gentle, and wholesome. It’s the right dish to have available for cookouts, events, child or bridal showers, grad events, and any get collectively in between!

Finest Fruit Salad Recipe Elements

It could seem to be you possibly can mix all of your favourite fruits to create a fruit salad and, technically, you’d be proper! That mentioned, I occur to consider this specific mixture of tropical fruits, candy berries, and pomegranate arils achieves a great steadiness of candy, tart, crispy, and juicy. It’s truly fairly addicting! Right here’s what you’ll want:

• Pineapple: chopped, contemporary pineapple types the bottom of this fruity salad. Don’t miss my tutorial on how you can trim and chop a pineapple.
• Mango: do you know summer season is champagne mango (aka yellow mango) season? That is my favourite mango selection as a result of they’re exceptionally candy and juicy.
• Strawberries: present sweetness and a wonderful pop of crimson to the salad.
• Kiwi: my youngsters are kiwi-crazy and like to see it of their bowls of fruit salad. You should utilize inexperienced or yellow kiwi.
• Pomegranate: I like the jewel-tone pops of colour and sweet-tart style pomegranate arils deliver to this fruit salad combine. You should buy simply the arils, although I’ll present you under how you can de-seed a pomegranate with zero mess.
• Lime + Honey: a drizzle of each creates the “dressing” for this fruity salad. Just a bit of every helps create a lightweight and luscious sauce that brings the salad collectively right into a cohesive dish.

As satisfying as this dish is through the hotter months utilizing contemporary summer season fruits, all of the elements are available through the chilly months so it may be made 12 months spherical. A serving bowl of this straightforward fruit salad recipe could be a festive and welcomed addition to any Christmas or winter celebration!

Easy methods to Hold Fruit Salad from Getting Soggy

We’ve all skilled a gentle and soggy scoop of fruit salad earlier than. Dislike! Listed here are my suggestions for making certain your summer season fruit salad is contemporary, snappy, and nonetheless dazzling at serving time.

• If making absolutely forward: It’s greatest to serve this fruit salad the identical day it’s made. I like to recommend assembling the fruit salad plus dressing up to a few hours forward of time, which supplies the elements time to macerate with out changing into overly gentle and soggy.
• If prepping forward: In the event you’re trying to save time on the day you’re serving the salad, peel/chop the fruit parts as much as 2 days forward of time however retailer them individually. Mix the elements then gown with lime juice and honey up to a few hours forward of serving.

Apart from events and potlucks, I like having a bowl of fruit salad within the fridge as a wholesome, after-school snack for my youngsters, or to scoop as a simple facet dish with their dinner entrees. For these functions, the fruit salad can hand around in the fridge for as much as 3 days after assembling as a result of my youngsters don’t care if the fruit turns into a bit of gentle.

Do that Recent and Summery Appetizer

Easy methods to Make Fruit Salad for a Crowd

Step 1: Prep the fruits and berries.

Trim / prep / peel / chop contemporary fruits, berries, and pomegranate arils in a big mixing bowl or serving bowl. Once more, we’ve obtained:

• Mango: peeled then chopped
• Strawberries: trimmed then chopped
• Pineapple: trimmed then chopped
• Kiwi: peeled then chopped
• Pomegranate arils

Another fruits to swap out or add into the combo are blueberries, blackberries, and cantaloupe. Raspberries, nectarines, or peaches would even be DIVINE — however fold these into the combo simply earlier than serving since they’re so delicate!

Easy methods to Seed a Pomegranate

Belief me after I let you know I’ve tried each technique below the solar for eradicating pomegranate seeds, aka arils, from a pomegranate and that is BY FAR one of the best one (this can be a hill I’m keen to die on). There isn’t a mess, splatters, stains, nor whacking with a picket spoon required!

Pomegranate Step 1: Rating a sq. across the blossom finish.

Lower deep sufficient to undergo the peel, however not deep sufficient to the place you’re slicing into the pomegranate seeds. Use the blossom to peel away the sq..

Pomegranate Step 2: Vertically rating the membrane strains.

Do you see the 6 white vertical membranes separating the 5 clusters of arils from one another? Use your knife to attain the pores and skin inline with the membranes. Once more, not too deep — simply sufficient to chop by means of the pores and skin/pith.

Pomegranate Step 3: Open the pomegranate and take away the seeds.

The vertical rating strains will mean you can open the pomegranate like a flower. Subsequent, use your fingertips to pop the seeds out right into a bowl of water.

Once more, there’s zero mess utilizing this technique, as you possibly can see!

Pomegranate Step 4: Clear the arils.

Little bits of pith would possibly stay on the arils, so I prefer to swish them round in a bowl of chilly water and scoop out something that floats to the highest. Drain in a colander in between rinsing. I do that possibly two or thrice.

Voila — pomegranate seeds made straightforward!

Step 2: Gown the Fruit Salad

Drizzle contemporary lime juice and honey over the elements then fold to mix. It’s laborious to say how a lot of every you’ll want as a result of fruit and berries don’t include pre-determined sweetness ranges.

I begin with 1/2 lime and about 2 teaspoons of honey, let the fruit macerate for a few hours, then style and add extra of every if wanted.

• Tip: need to preserve this fruit salad vegan? Use powdered sugar or maple syrup as a substitute of honey. SO scrumptious!

Step 3: Let the Fruit Salad Macerate.

Refrigerate the fruit salad for no less than half-hour, and up to some hours forward of serving, with the intention to macerate — that’s, draw out the pure juices of the fruits to mix and make a cohesive salad. It actually makes a HUGE distinction!

After that, its time to share! Be happy to garnish the serving bowl with contemporary mint, as I’ve proven right here. That is at all times a enjoyable contact for events. Seems fancy however simply takes a minute.

Easy methods to Retailer Fruit Salad

Retailer the fruit salad immediately within the mixing bowl or in a big serving bowl coated with a lid or saran wrap / press-n-seal previous to serving.

Leftovers will be saved for as much as 3 days, although the fruit will develop into softer and saucier with every passing day.

Remodel Leftovers

Fruit salad for a crowd will serve 8-10 folks, and in case you have leftovers, they repurpose fantastically!

• Smoothie: Pour the leftover fruit salad right into a blender with yogurt and/or a splash of milk then mix till easy.
• Lazy Lady Sorbet: Scoop leftovers right into a freezer-safe container or Ziplock freezer bag then freeze flat. Pour the frozen fruit right into a blender or meals processor then mix till easy. Sorbet texture — no churning required!

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Images by Ashley McLaughlin