Summer Fruit Salad

This Summer Fruit Salad recipe made with fresh fruit and homemade honey lime dressing is an easy healthy side dish. This colorful salad is perfect for cookouts and goes with just about anything!

If you have a lot of fresh fruit at your house, you can make this easy fruit salad recipe in just a few minutes. This easy side dish goes well with burgers, steaks, grilled chicken, fish and just about everything else!

The nice thing about this summer fruit salad, like our Watermelon, Feta and Blueberry Salad and Marshmallow Fruit Salad, is that it's so easy to prepare, and the kids can help with the prep work. Even the younger ones can help wash the fruit, slice bananas or peel the mandarins.

Of course, they like to nibble as they work -- who doesn't? So, I just have to make sure there is enough fruit left over to go into the salad! 

What Fruit Goes in this Salad

I used to call this tropical fruit salad, but you basically use any fruit that you can easily find in the summertime:

• Strawberries
• Pineapple
• Kiwi
• Mandarin oranges
• Blueberries

I also like to throw in a banana or two because we always have bananas to use up. This recipe is very versatile, and you can easily use your favorite fruit here.

How to Make Summer Fruit Salad

Wash the fruit, and carefully cut the pineapple into small chunks. Peel the fuzzy skin off the kiwi fruit, and slice it thin.

I use as much fresh fruit as I can. But sometimes, I'll cheat and used cut fruit from the store -- think pineapple! Then, add the prepared fruit to a large serving bowl.

Make the Dressing

The dressing for fruit salad is super simple. I make an easy honey lime dressing for extra flavor. It also helps keep the bananas from turning brown.

Of course, you can leave the dressing off and just enjoy the natural sweetness of the ripe fruit.  If I don't have a lemon or lime, I serve it as is and just add one banana to the top. 

Pour the dressing over the fruit, and gently mix until it's well coated. Then, pop the salad into the fridge until you're ready to serve it.

You've got to love how healthy and colorful this salad is! This is one salad that even my pickiest eaters eat without complaints!

How Long does it Last?

This salad should last about 2 days before the fruit gets too soft. The dressing should help to preserve the bananas, but they turn mushy after a day or two.

This fruit salad never lasts long in our house, though. Usually it's gone before the next day!

Post was originally published in 2015 and updated in 2021.