I think this is my new favorite fruit salad, Honey Ginger Lime Fruit Salad. It’s light, refreshing and has just enough sumpin’ sumpin’ to complement the fruit and enhance the flavor. It really does bring out the best in just about any fruit used.
Honey Ginger Lime Fruit Salad
I don’t know about you, but I just love a fruit salad. I’m not normally a big fruit eater and tend to ignore any fruit on the counter or in the fridge until it’s a last-ditch save to do something with it. A fruit salad, though, filled with all my favorite things gets me going. And I actually find I’ll even eat fruits that aren’t my favorite and it never hurts to get that variety.
About Honey Ginger Lime Fruit Salad:
I absolutely love how drop-dead simple this fruit salad is. The dressing has three ingredients and is just a quick stir together, no-cook thing. There’s a little honey to sweeten (which helps make it thick enough to coat the fruit) and then the zest and juice of a lime to counterbalance that sweetness. A whisper of grated ginger drives the flavor home. That makes this Honey Ginger Lime Fruit Salad a minimum of effort for a big pay-off.
This is really a beautiful salad to serve or bring to an event like a Holiday dinner, a party, a barbecue or a potluck. While the flavors are familiar it’s a combo that’s not served as often, so it’s just a bit different and those flavors work so well with so many other food items.
There’s something about a fruit salad that just screams “classic” and it’s just as great at a sit-down dinner as it is at a barbecue or potluck, and this one is no exception. If you’d like ot see more of my Fruit Salads, I do have a few on this menu of Fruit Salads and Salads with Fruit.
Making Honey Ginger Lime Fruit Salad:
I love the flavors of ginger and lime and they go so well with the fruit in Honey Ginger Lime Fruit Salad. If you’d like, change it up with another citrus, maybe a little bright lemon or orange. You can’t go wrong with any of those citrus flavors and any of the three will work well with the ginger in the dressing.
As far as the flavors, there’s a range of the lime and ginger that you can use; vary it according to your taste. Add a little, give it a test and add a little more until you find your perfect amounts. You might want to vary that intensity, too, depending on what you’re serving your fruit salad with. If you’re going with stronger flavors, like jerk chicken, for instance, going strong on the citrus zest and ginger works beautifully. If you’re having a turkey sandwich, maybe lighten the flavors up a bit.
There’s no hard and fast rule about the fruits in the salad. I used what I had. Add in apples, bananas, or other berries if you’d like. Go tropical with a little mango or papaya. Melons always work well and it’s a great way to use any melon that’s been cut and not yet finished. Honestly, it’s hard to go wrong. Poppy seeds are lovely in the salad; I didn’t happen to use any this time but they give a little variation in the color and texture and always make your fruit salad look just a little fancy.
Honey Ginger Lime Fruit Salad
Saving Money on Honey Ginger Lime Fruit Salad:
Although I have suggested amounts of the fruits, pay attention to the cost and seasonality and you can easily bring this salad in on a budget. Using more of the less expensive fruits and less of the expensive ones is another good strategy.
If you are tempted to buy a prepackaged container of fruit, know that you’re going to be paying through the nose for it. Try to buy whole fruits and cut them yourself; you might want to go with a little less variety unless you know you’ll eat all the excess. For instance, maybe you’ll want either honeydew or cantaloupe instead of both.
I do have a little trick when I have some leftover fruit salad – I like to give it a new squeeze of citrus, maybe orange and drizzle it with a teaspoon or so of vanilla. It just changes the flavors a smidge and makes it seem like a “new” fruit salad.
Any fruit salad has a limited shelf life and a limited appeal after two to three days in the fridge, so have a plan for any excess. Don’t let any excess languish in the fridge. If nothing else, drain and lay out on a sheet of plastic wrap over a sheet tray and freeze. The plastic wrap makes it easy to peel off the frozen fruit even if it was a bit wet to start with. Then divvy it up into Ziplocs for smoothies.
Just a quick note on the ginger. Keep it in your freezer, in the door and just take it out and grate it from the frozen state. Usually, it doesn’t freeze so hard it will need to be thawed, but if it does, just leave it on the counter for 10 minutes or so. It will keep a good long time in the freezer without losing flavor and there will be no worries about your ginger sprouting.
Honey Ginger Lime Fruit Salad
Honey Ginger Lime Fruit Salad
- Total Time: 20 min + marinade
- Yield: 8 to 10 servings 1x
- Category: Salads
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 1 lime, finely zested and then juiced
- 1 teaspoon finely grated ginger
- 2 cups cubed melon, such as cantaloupe, honeydew and/or watermelon
- 2 cups seedless red grapes
- 2 cups pineapple pieces
- 1 pint strawberries, halved or quartered depending on size
- 2 teaspoons poppy or other seeds, optional
Instructions
Mix honey, zest, juice, and ginger in a small bowl until well blended. Note, you may wish to start with a bit of the zest and a bit of the ginger and add to taste, depending on how strong you wish the flavors to be.
Place fruit in a large serving bowl. Add dressing; toss gently to coat. Sprinkle with poppy or other seed if desired and gently stir in.
Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour and up to several and gently stir before using. The salad will still be good, but the fruit will start to soften after a day or so and won’t look quite as attractive.
Keywords: cantaloupe, Fruit, fruit salad, Grapes, honeydew, Pineapple, Strawberries
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I’ll be sharing Honey Ginger Lime Fruit Salad at Fiesta Friday #273, hosted this week by myself and Angie @ Fiesta Friday.
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