Vegan Fruit Salad with Lime Juice

The recipe uses a pop of lime zest and juice to let those naturally sweet summer fruits shine!  If you enjoy homemade fruit salads, you also might like this recipe for summer berry salad. 

Our fruit salad is incredibly flavorful and simple to put together.  It’s decadent enough for special occasions and easy enough for Sunday breakfast.  It also works well as a healthy dessert, a nice addition to lunch, or for potlucks.

It’s been such a hit with my family that we’ve been making it for years. It's also an easy way to get kids to eat a variety of fruits. For more simple refreshing salads try zesty quinoa salad or vegan spinach strawberry salad.

Ingredients

• I use mandarin oranges from a jar that’s packed in juice.  Drain well before adding to the fruit salad.
• Use ripe bananas (that are bright yellow), brown ones will be soft and mushy, while green ones won’t be sweet enough.
• The kiwis add a little more tartness to the dish, peel, and either slice or chop them. If they're large I like to quarter the slices.
• The strawberries can be sliced or quartered. Make sure they are free of mold, and bruises (dark spots), and have a vibrant color.
• Use red grapes, which are sweeter than green. Use only plump ones that are free of soft spots.
• Only zest the green parts of the lime, the white pith underneath can be bitter.

Tips

• A Microplane works great for zesting citrus.  
• No sweetener is added to this vegan fruit salad because the fruit is sweet enough, but if you prefer you can add a little maple syrup to sweeten up this homemade fruit salad.
• After washing the fruit, dry it well to not add any additional liquid to the salad.

Frequently asked question

Making the salad in advance and storage

The fruit can be chopped the day before (except for the bananas) and stored separately.  Wait to add the zest and juice until the day it’s consumed.  The salad is best eaten the day it’s made, but if needed leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 1-2 days.  

If storing leftovers, please keep in mind that the fruit will soften and release some of its liquid.  It’s still edible but the texture gets lost from the fruit soaking in lime juice.  The bananas start to get mushy when stored, so if you need them to last a couple of days keep that in mind.

Instructions

Prep your fruit by slicing the bananas into coins, cutting the grapes in half, then quartering or slicing the strawberries. Peel the kiwis and slice or quarter them. Then, toss them into a bowl with the oranges.  Next zest the lime, and then juice it.  Add your lime zest and juice to the fruit and gently toss everything together.