Let's celebrate the first day of summer with this colorful and delicious Summer Fruit Salad with Honey Lime Vinaigrette.

It is no secret around here that summer is my favorite season. Sleeping in, late nights, long sunny days, vacations to the beach, days at the pool, and an abundance of fruit and veggies at the farmers markets. Especially stone fruits like cherries, peaches and plums. And of course tropical fruits. All these fruits and veggies mean tons of salads all summer long. The perfect light meal for those long hot days.

I absolutely love the colors of fruit salads. Bright, fresh and summery. Fruit salads are amazing as is but I like to take them to the next level by adding vinaigrette. Vegetable salads get dressings, so why can't fruit salads? This dressing really enhances the flavor of the fruit as well as bring out the sweetness in some of the more tart fruits such as cherries and kiwis.

This light and refreshing honey lime vinaigrette pairs perfectly with this colorful summer fruit salad. For this salad I used pineapple, honeydew, grapes, mandarin tangerines, cherries, blueberries, strawberries and kiwi. Really the sky's the limit for what you add into your salad and go with what is seasonal too.

This salad will have more peaches and nectarines, plums and pluots, Rainier cherries, blackberries and fresh figs later on in summer. We have many stone fruit trees at our house and once those ripen they get added in to this salad. Get further into fall and add in apples and more citrus or melons. There really is no wrong combination for a fruit salad! It is a great dish to make year round.

Summer gorgeousness in a bowl. This goes great for brunch, picnics or even for a light summertime dessert.

Summer Fruit Salad with Honey Lime Vinaigrette

Shanna

Summertime fruit makes for the best fruit salad especially paired with a honey lime vinaigrette

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Servings 1 large fruit salad

Ingredients

For the Vinaigrette

⅓ C Honey
2 tablespoon Olive Oil
2 teaspoon White Wine Vinegar
1 tablespoon Key Lime Juice
⅓ C Calamansi Lime Juice
Zest from 1 Lime about 1 tsp
Salt to taste

For the Fruit Salad

2-4 Cups each:
Strawberries - Tops cut off hulled and sliced
Blueberries - left whole
Cherries - stems and pits removed sliced in half
Tangerines - peeled sections cut in half or thirds
Pineapple - peeled and diced
Grapes - Sliced in half
Melon - honeydew or cantaloupe - seeds scooped out cut into small chunks or scooped with a melonballer, melon balls cut in half
Kiwi - Peeled and sliced into circles then into flowers with a small cutter or left in circles

Garnish:

2-3 tablespoon fresh mint chopped, a few sprigs left whole for decoration
Pineapple wedges
Kiwis cut in half in a zig-zag pattern
A few whole fruits - cherries strawberries, grapes etc.

Instructions

1. In a small bowl whisk together the vinaigrette ingredients and set aside. Keep chilled if not using immediately.
2. Place all the prepared fruit in a large serving bowl, either arranged with each fruit separate or all mixed together. Garnish with pineapple wedges, a few pieces of whole fruit and sprigs of mint around the edges of the bowl. Place zig-zag cut kiwi in the middle. Drizzle on the vinaigrette.
3. When ready to serve spoon out about a cup into a small bowl or glass making sure to spoon in some of the vinaigrette as well. If preparing ahead of time before serving, don’t pour the dressing on until ready to serve. Keep the fruit salad covered and chilled before serving.

Notes

Use whatever fruit you desire for the salad, especially if there are fruits you prefer over others or what is currently in season. Try not to use fruit that ripen too quickly once cut such as banana. Stick to firmer fruits and berries, melons and stone fruits such as nectarines, cherries and plums work best. Tropical fruits such as dragon fruit, star fruit and mango work well too. Papaya tends to get a bit mushy in fruit salads. Same with overripe watermelon.

The vinaigrette can easily be doubled if making a much larger fruit salad.

Happy Summer!!