Berry Fruit Salad
Berry Fruit Salad with a honey, lime and mint dressing is a beautiful and tasty addittion to summer parties. With strawberries, watermelon, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and dragonfruit, this recipe is perfect as a side dish or fun summer dessert.
With juicy berries and vibrant colors, this easy fruit salad recipe is the perfect side dish for backyard BBQ’s or hot summer days when served along side Best Ever Dry Rub Chicken Wings, Mom’s Old Fashioned Corn Bread and Summer Pasta Salad. Add in one of our summer favorites, Italian Lemon Sorbet Cocktail for an over top delicious summer celebration.
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Dressing and Serving Berry Fruit Salad
This Fruit Salad is absolutely perfect for the summer months when watermelon and summer berries are in season. It is delicious as a healthy dessert or side dish for potlucks and BBQ’s this time of year. However, if these fruits are available in the winter, it is a beautiful salad for the holidays also. Regardless of when you serve this berry salad, here are two important tips for serving.
- Add the lime and honey just before serving. If added too soon before serving, the citric acid and sugar will cause the fruit to weep and macerate. In other words, the fruit will become too soft. However, if added right before serving, the salad is perfect.
- If making shapes with the dragonfruit, add at the last minute to the top of the salad. This will help prevent the dragonfruit from loosing its shape.
Best Dressing For Fruit Salad
The simple combination of lime, honey and mint creates a delicious balance of a sweet and tangy flavor with the cooling effects of mint. The result is a refreshing and satisfying experience because these flavors compliment each other very well and help to bring out the natural deliciousness of the fruit.
Pro Tip: Don’t forget to use the lime zest for this salad because it intensifies the lime flavor. Citrus zest is a treasure trove of flavor goodness.
Ingredients Needed
- Seedless Watermelon– To know if a watermelon is ripe look for one that has strips that are further apart, one side of the melon that is yellow and creamy in color with the rest being green, a deep hollow sound and a moderate amount of brown webbing on the rind. Note: The brown webbing has to do the bees and pollination. A moderate amount of webbing indicates a sweet watermelon. Too much webbing can indicate that the watermelon in over ripe.
- Dragon Fruit– A ripe dragon fruit will be bright pink with possibly some yellow and the wings (leafy part that extends off of the fruit) will dry out and turn brown.
- Strawberries, Blueberries, Red Raspberries and Blackberries– Or a combination of your favorite berries.
- Fresh Mint– Adds a cooling sweetness to this watermelon and mixed berry salad.
- Lime Zest and Juice– Using fresh lime juice and zest makes a world of difference in accentuating the fresh flavors of this salad.
- Honey– Brings in a slight sweetness and helps to balance the lime juice.
How To Make This Dragonfruit and Berry Salad
Cutting the Watermelon
- Rinse watermelon and Pat dry.
- Using a sharp chefs knife carefully cut off both ends of the watermelon.
- Turn the watermelon onto one of the ends and carefully cut the rind off in strips, starting at the top of the melon and working down towards the cutting board (see video for visual).
- Once the rind is off, cut the watermelon into a few steaks at a time. Pro Tip: Have a second cutting board near by to transfer the larger uncut portion of the watermelon while cutting smaller pieces.
- Cut the watermelon steak into long 1 inch strips.
- Turn the cutting board and cut the watermelon steak in the opposite direction creating 1 inch cubes of watermelon.
- Transfer the cut pieces to a large mixing bowl. Pro Tip: A bench scraper makes for easy transferring of the cut pieces.
Cutting the Dragon Fruit
- Rinse off cutting board and knife after cutting the watermelon.
- Rinse the dragon fruit and place on its side on the cutting board.
- Carefully cut off both ends. Note: The end that had the stem may need a second thin slice removed from that end.
- Cut the dragon fruit lengthwise.
- Using your fingers, peel the skin from the fruit.
- Lay the cut piece flat onto the cutting board and carefully remove any excess pink with your chefs knife.
- Cut into desired shapes. For this salad I used a small star cookie cutter to make the star shapes. I then cut the leftover dragon fruit into small pieces.
- Set the star shapes aside in a small bowl. Add the small dragon fruit pieces to the large bowl.
Assembling of Salad
- Wash, core and cut strawberries. Add to watermelon bowl.
- Rinse the remaining berries and add to the watermelon bowl.
- Rinse and finely chop the mint. Add to the fruit bowl.
- Zest lime and add to the fruit bowl.
- Whisk together the freshly squeezed lime and honey.
- Pour over berries and cut fruit.
- Gently mix the fruit and the dressing.
Variations
This Berry Fruit Salad recipe is incredibly delicious as is. However, please feel free to play with some of the ingredients to match your personal taste preferences. Here are a few ideas.
- A combination of lime and orange (both juice and zest) would make a delicious variation. Additionally, a lime and lemon juice combination would be fun.
- Replace some of the berries with sliced peaches and cherries for a tasty fresh fruit salad.
- Switch out either the raspberries or blackberries with grapes.
- Pure maple syrup can replace the honey.
- The addittion of orange slices (or mandarin oranges) and fresh pineapple chunks would make this a very colorful and tasty fruit salad. (Either eliminate the blackberries and raspberries or double the dressing for this option.)
Frequently Asked Questions
How long will this summer berry salad last?
As soon as this fruit salad is dressed with honey lime dressing, the fruit will begin to soften. This salad is best within the first 2 hours after dressing. However, If stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container, it can be served the next day. The salad will just be very juicy and the fruit will be macerated or in other words, the fruit will be soft.
What is the best way to store this berry fruit salad?
In an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Can this fruit salad be frozen?
It is not recommended to freeze this fruit salad in salad form. However a great way to freeze the leftovers is to blend and then make into popsicles.
Another option would be to blend the salad and then freeze in ice cube trays. The ice cubes can then be blended with limoncello to make a delicious summer cocktail.
What are the signs of a dragonfruit being ripe?
A ripe dragon fruit will have a little give when squeezed gently. Also, it will be bright pink with wings (the spiky extensions) that are drying out and turning brown.
More Delicious Summer Sides
Berry Fruit Salad
Ingredients
- 2 pounds cut watermelon *about 3-4 cups cubed, see Note #1 below
- 2 large dragon fruits *peeled and cut, see Note #2 below
- 1 pound strawberries *hulled and cut into slices, see Note #3 below
- 6 ounces blueberries
- 6 ounces raspberries
- 6 ounces blackberries
- 1/2 cup finely chopped mint *about 1 small bunch
- 1/2 tablespoon lime zest *from about 2 large limes
- 1/4 cup lime juice *from about 2 large limes
- 2 tablespoons honey
Instructions
Cutting the Watermelon
- Rinse watermelon, pat dry and place on a large cutting board. See note #4 below.
- Using a sharp chefs knife carefully cut off both ends of the watermelon.
- Turn the watermelon onto one of the ends. Carefully cut the rind off in large strips starting at the top of the melon and working down towards the cutting board.
- Once the rind is off, cut the watermelon into approximately 1 inch thick steaks.
- Working on one watermelon steak at a time, lay the steak flat on the cutting board and cut it into 1 inch strips.
- Turn the cutting board and cut the watermelon in the opposite direction creating approximately 1 inch cubes.
- Transfer the cut pieces to a large mixing bowl. See note #5 below.
Cutting the Dragon Fruit
- Rinse the dragon fruit and place it on its side on the cutting board.
- Using a chefs knife carefully cut off both ends. The end that had the stem may need a second this slice removed from that end. See video for more details.
- Cut the dragon fruit lengthwise.
- Using your fingers peel the skin from the fruit and lay each half flat side down on the cutting board.
- Using the chefs knife carefully trim any excess pink and discard.
- Cut the halved dragon fruit in half again. Lay the 2 halves flat on the cutting board. Using the cookie cutter make shapes in the dragon fruit. See note #6 below. Set the stars aside on a plate. Add the stars to the salad after dressing and just before serving.
- Cut the scraps of dragon fruit into small pieces and transfer to the watermelon bowl.
Assembly of Salad
- Wash, core and cut strawberries. Add to watermelon bowl.
- Rinse remaining berries and add to the watermelon bowl along with mint and lime zest.
- In a separate bowl whisk together lime juice and honey. Pour over berries and gently mix. Top with dragon fruit stars. See note #7 below.
Notes
- Stripes that are further apart from one another.
- One side of the melon that has a yellow creamy color.
- A deep hollow sound when patted.
- Moderate amount of webbing. The webbing is connected to bees and pollination. A moderate amount indicates a sweet watermelon. Too much webbing can indicate a watermelon that is over ripe.
- Bright pink with possibly some yellow.
- Will have a little give when squeezed gently.
- The wings (leafy parts that extend off of the fruit) will dry out and turn brown.
