Fresh Fruit Salad with Lime Dressing

There is a fruit salad that lives in my memory from every summer barbecue I have ever been to, and it is almost always the same sad bowl: melon balls floating in juice, a few grapes, and everything tasting vaguely of nothing. This is not that fruit salad. This one is bright, fresh and properly dressed, and the lime and honey dressing is the thing that makes the whole bowl sing.

I started making fruit salad this way after a holiday in Thailand, where the fruit was always served with a squeeze of lime and a little chilli salt. I skipped the chilli for the children, but the lime stayed, and it changed everything. The acid wakes up the natural sweetness of the fruit, the honey rounds it off, and a little mint makes it taste like summer. It is the simplest dessert I know, and it is the one I make when I want something sweet without feeling heavy.

Watch: Fresh Fruit Salad with Lime Dressing

Prep time: 20 minutes | Cook time: 0 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 2 cups strawberries, hulled and halved
• 2 cups pineapple, cut into bite-sized chunks
• 2 mangoes, peeled and diced
• 2 kiwis, peeled and sliced
• 1 cup blueberries
• 1 cup green grapes, halved
• 2 tablespoons honey
• Zest and juice of 2 limes
• 1 tablespoon fresh mint leaves, finely chopped, plus extra to garnish
• 1 tablespoon orange juice
• A pinch of salt
• Yoghurt or vanilla ice cream, to serve (optional)

Method

1. Wash all the fruit under cold water and pat it dry with a clean tea towel. Wet fruit dilutes the dressing and makes the whole salad soggy, so take a moment to dry it properly.
2. Hull and halve the strawberries, peel and dice the mangoes and the pineapple into bite-sized pieces, keeping them all roughly the same size so every spoonful gets a bit of everything.
3. Peel and slice the kiwis, halve the grapes, and put all the fruit into a large bowl. Use a big bowl — you need room to toss without squashing the soft fruit.
4. Whisk the honey, lime zest, lime juice, orange juice and salt together in a small bowl, until the honey has dissolved. Taste it: it should be sharp and sweet at the same time, like a good lemonade.
5. Pour the dressing over the fruit and toss very gently with two spoons. Do not stir hard or the soft fruit will break up and turn the whole bowl to mush.
6. Fold in the chopped mint, right at the end, so it stays bright and fragrant instead of bruising into the fruit.
7. Cover the bowl and chill it for 20 to 30 minutes. That little rest lets the flavours marry and the fruit soak up the dressing — it really does taste better cold.
8. Taste once more before serving and adjust: a squeeze more lime if it is too sweet, a drizzle more honey if it is too sharp. Serve in bowls, scattered with a few extra mint leaves.

Serving and Storage

Serve chilled, in bowls, on its own or with a spoonful of yoghurt or a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It is best eaten the day it is made — the fruit is at its freshest and the dressing is brightest. Leftovers keep in the fridge for a day, though softer fruit like banana will go brown and the strawberries will soften, so add those just before serving if you are making it ahead. For a prettier presentation, serve it in individual glass cups or small bowls with a sprig of mint on top — it looks lovely at a summer lunch.

Tips

A few things I have learned about fruit salad. Cut the fruit into similar-sized pieces, because the salad tastes better when every spoonful has a bit of everything. Add the dressing just before serving if you are making it ahead — the acid starts to soften the fruit after a while. Use fruit that is ripe but still firm; overripe fruit falls apart. And taste the dressing before you pour it over — limes vary, so adjust the honey and lime to your fruit, not to the recipe. A pinch of salt sounds odd in a fruit salad, but it makes the flavours pop. You can change this salad with the seasons and it will still work. In autumn, try apples, pears and grapes with the same lime dressing; in winter, oranges and pomegranate seeds are lovely. A splash of coconut water in the dressing makes it taste tropical, and a few raspberries folded in at the end give it a beautiful colour. If you are serving it at a party, put it in a large glass bowl so everyone can see the colours — it doubles as a centerpiece, and people always ask for the recipe.

Make this the next time you want something sweet but light, or the next time you have a bowl of mixed fruit and no idea what to do with it. Twenty minutes of chopping and a simple lime dressing, and you will have a dessert that tastes like summer. That is the whole point of this recipe. And if you make it for friends, double the recipe — it disappears faster than you think.