Juicy, sweet, and tangy, this Tropical Fruit Salad combines a medley of tropical fruits, tossed in a homemade honey-lime dressing. Simple, vibrant, and beautiful!
Why You’ll Love This Refreshing, Tropical Fruit Salad
There are so many reasons I love this easy fruit salad recipe:
- A Burst of Fresh Fruit Flavor: This luscious, colorful blend of strawberries, kiwis, tangerines, and more juicy tropical fruits are anything but boring. It’s like a beach vacation in a bowl!
- Amazing Nutrition: We all know we need to add colorful fruit and veggies to our diets, but this salad takes it to the next level. Packed with essential vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, tropical fruit salad is a guilt-free way to satisfy your sweet tooth.
- Versatile: Serve this dish as a snack, a side dish, a dessert, or even as a topping for ice cream.
- Easy: Tropical fruit salad is totally doable, even if you aren’t a very experienced cook! A total novice (wink, wink) could easily pull this off – just peel, cut, and mix.
Looking for a savory fruit salad? Try my favorite Mango Salad with crisp red bell pepper and cucumbers!
The Ingredients You’ll Need
If you don’t have some of these fruits available where you live, that’s not a problem! The honey-lime dressing goes with practically everything, so feel free to swap in whatever you have. See the Tips section below for ideas!
- Orange Juice and Lime Juice: These are the basis of the dressing.
- Honey: Use your favorite type of honey, or you could use agave.
- Strawberries: Sliced.
- Tangerines: Peeled and separated into segments.
- Kiwis: Peeled, halved, and sliced.
- Mango: Peeled and cut into ½ inch pieces.
- Dragon Fruit: Peeled and cut into ½ inch pieces
- Pineapple: Peeled, cored and cut into 1 inch pieces.
- Fresh Mint: Optional, for garnish.
How to Make Tropical Fruit Salad
Making this bright, fresh salad is as easy as can be. Prepping the fruit is the most time-consuming part. After that, you just combine the ingredients, and you’re done!
- Make the Dressing. In a medium bowl, whisk the orange juice, lime juice and honey together until the honey dissolves. You could also combine these ingredients in a jar with a lid, and shake them up.
- Toss the Fruit Together and Add Dressing. Combine all of the fruit in a large bowl, toss gently, and then pour the dressing on top. Toss again to coat.
- Chill. Cover the bowl tightly (with a lid, saran wrap or foil) and chill the fruit salad in the refrigerator. Thirty minutes is fine, but overnight is good, too!
- Enjoy! Serve the salad garnished with fresh mint leaves, if you are using them.
Helpful Hints
When it comes to making tropical fruit salad, there are a few handy tips I’d like to share. These will help your salad turn out perfectly, every time.
- Lime Juice: You can swap the lime juice for lemon juice, for a milder citrus flavor.
- Honey: If you do not have honey, agave is a good swap. You can also use simple syrup.
- Ripe Fruit: Look for for fruit that’s ripe, but not too soft. You want that flavor, but you don’t want it to spoil or turn mushy too soon.
- Chill Time: Chilling is an important step for enhancing the flavor and creating an extra-fresh, intense salad.
- Tajin: Adding a hearty sprinkle of Tajin on top is one of my favorite spins on this classic dish. Just sprinkle a little on top and take a bite for a flavor explosion!
Serving Suggestions
Once your tropical fruit salad is ready, you’ll want to dive straight in – and hey, no shame in that! But it also pairs well with lots of other dishes, like these:
- Grilled Chicken: Serve this vibrant salad alongside grilled chicken for a fantastic summer dinner. We love these Juicy Grilled Chicken Kabobs. Yum.
- Taco Salad: No one can resist the layers of savory flavor in a taco salad. Adding fruit salad as a side dish gives the menu unbeatable contrast! For a taco salad your family will ask for again and again, try this Dorito Taco Salad.
- Ice Cream: Spoon this over a couple of scoops of your favorite vanilla, or really take the summer vibes up a notch and make Homemade Key Lime Pie Frozen Yogurt. This dessert will blow your mind!
How to Store Tropical Fruit Salad
This salad stores well (depending on the fruit you use, and how fresh it is) for about 2 days, as long as you store it properly. For maximum freshness, place it in an airtight container, or cover it tightly with plastic wrap. Always store in the refrigerator, and stir gently before serving.
Can I Freeze This?
I don’t recommend freezing tropical fruit salad as-is, because fresh fruit tends to be watery after freezing and thawing. However, you can put it into popsicle molds and cover it with lemonade or juice to make frozen fruit pops!
More Fruit-Filled Favorites
- Fruit Sandwich (Fruit Sando)
- Strawberry Smoothie Bowl
- Blackberry Cobbler
- Creamy Waldorf Salad
- Spinach Strawberry Salad
- Creamy Grape Salad
- Ambrosia Salad
Tropical Fruit Salad Recipe
Ingredients
- ½ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
- ¼ cup freshly squeezed lime juice
- ¼ cup honey, or agave
- 10 strawberries, sliced
- 2 tangerines, peeled and separated
- 2 kiwis, peeled and cut in half, then sliced
- 2 mangos, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
- 1 dragon fruit, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
- ½ pineapple, peeled, cored and cut into 1-inch pieces (about 2 cups once cut)
- Fresh mint, optional garnish
Instructions
- In a medium size bowl or jar, whisk to combine the orange juice, lime juice and honey together until the honey dissolves.
- In a separate large bowl, toss to combine the strawberries, tangerines, kiwis, mangos, dragon fruit and pineapple. Pour the dressing over the fruit and toss gently to coat.
- Cover the bowl tightly (with a lid, saran wrap or foil) and chill the fruit salad in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or overnight.
- Garnish with fresh mint leaves, if desired, before serving.
Notes
- Lime Juice: You can swap the lime juice for lemon juice, for a milder citrus flavor.
- Honey: If you do not have honey, agave is a good swap. You can also use simple syrup.
- Ripe Fruit: Opt for fruit that is ripe, but not overly soft. You want that flavor, but you don’t want it to spoil or turn mushy too soon.
- Chill Time: Chilling is an important step for enhancing the flavor and creating an extra-fresh, intense salad.
- Tajin: Adding a hearty sprinkle of Tajin on top is one of my favorite spins on this classic dish. Just sprinkle a little on top and take a bite for a flavor explosion!
- Storage: This salad stores well (depending on the fruit you use, and how fresh it is) for about 2 days, as long as you store it properly. For maximum freshness, place it in an airtight container, or cover it tightly with plastic wrap. Always store in the refrigerator, and stir gently before serving.
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