A delightful bowl of this summer citrus fruit salad is perfect served at your next back yard bbq or picnic. Everyone loves a bowl of fruit salad as a side dish to any meal.
The kids will enjoy the combination of favorite citrus fruit served with fresh strawberries and sliced bananas.
A citrus fruit salad is a delicious side dish served at a barbecue, picnic or Mother's Day brunch.
Fruit salads are easy to make and serve. You can place a large serving bowl on a buffet and everyone can serve help themselves. Adding a yogurt fruit salad dressing is optional.
This fruit salad recipe was originally shared on April 20, 2011 and has been updated with new images and information on April 28, 2022
Ingredients
There are so many combinations of fresh fruit that can be used to make a citrus fruit salad.
Use a combination of your favorite citrus fruit and other in season fresh berries and fruit.
- Grapefruit: pink or red grapefruit adds a bright splash of color to a fruit salad. White grapefruit can be used if that's what you have.
- Apples: Gala, Pink Lady or Honey Crisp apple varieties are my choice when making a fruit salad. The fruit is tender and sweet.
- Bananas: Use firm but ripe bananas when making fruit salad. Overly soft fruit will turn to mush quickly.
- Oranges: You can use fresh oranges that you have cut into segments removing the tough skin but I prefer to use a can or jar of mandarin oranges instead.
- Strawberries: Use firm but ripe strawberries
Step by Step Directions
Directions to make a fruit salad are very simple. Prepare the fruit and combine in a bowl.
You can't get much easier than that but there are a few tips and tricks I'm sharing.
When it comes to preparing and using fresh fruit in a recipe there are a couple of things you can do that will make a huge difference in the end result.
These tips will help make sure the final visual appeal, texture and flavors of the fruit are perfect.
Check out my tips in the directions below.
Step 1: Prepare the grapefruit by peeling it and removing the thick skin or membrane between each segment.
Use a sharp paring knife to cut a seam along the top edge of each grapefruit segment.
Gently peel the skin away from the grapefruit pulp. Do this over a bowl to catch the grapefruit juice.
Step 2: Rinse the strawberries under cold water and drain well.
Trim the green cap off the top of the strawberries after draining well.
Use a sharp knife to cut the whole strawberries into thin slices. Add the sliced berries to the bowl with the grapefruit.
Step 3: Peel, core and cube the apples. Toss the apple pieces with the reserved mandarin orange juice or toss with the grapefruit and juice in the bowl.
If using the mandarin juice drain the apple pieces before adding to the bowl of grapefruit.
Step 4: Peel and slice the bananas. Toss the pieces with the leftover mandarin juice or add them to the bow with the grapefruit.
Toss immediately to cover with the citrus juice to prevent the banana from browning.
Step 5: Combine all of the prepared fruit in a large mixing bowl. Gently toss the fruit to combine.
Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least one hour before serving.
Chilled fruit salad tastes much better and will keep the fruits from getting mushy before you serve it.
Recipe FAQs
Fruits used to make a fruit salad like apples and bananas that start to brown once peeled or cut can be treated with a citric based fruit preservative like Fruit Fresh. In place of it you can use any citrus fruit juice like, orange, grapefruit or pineapple juice in place of the fruit preservative product.
Leftover fruit salad will start to become soggy rather quickly. Keeping the fruit salad as cold as possible at all times will help keep softer fruit from getting soggy or mushy. But some fruits like strawberries and bananas will quickly get soft and mushy no matter what you do. Fruit salad should be eaten within a day or two before soft fruits start to soften.
Recipe Expert Tips
- Prepping the grapefruit: Segment the fresh grape fruit. No one enjoys chewing on the thick membrane or skin that separates the grapefruit segments.
- Prepping the fresh strawberries: To prevent the strawberries from absorbing moisture and getting mushy rinse under cold water before trimming the green stem and leaves off. Once the cap of the strawberry is removed the berry can and will absorb some water and start to become soft and mushy.
- Keeping fruit from browning: Peel and slice the fruit according to how quickly it browns. Leave the bananas until last because the brown quickly.
- Citrus juice is a natural preservative: Citrus juice will naturally prevent fruit like apple and banana that quickly browns once cut or peeled. Prevent the cubed apple and sliced banana from browning by tossing the fruit pieces with the mandarin orange or grapefruit juice.
More Fruit Salad Recipes
Fruit salads are a refreshing side dish any time of the year. There are many combinations of fresh in season fruits that can be used to make a fruit salad.
Email questions or recipe requests to flouronmyface@gmail.com. Follow me on Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.
Citrus Fruit Salad
Equipment
- 1 Mixing Bowl
- 1 Large Mixing Spoon
Ingredients
- 2 medium pink or red grape fruits
- 1 ½ cups sliced strawberries
- 23 oz jar mandarin oranges, drained
- 3 small small bananas
- 2 cups cubed apple
- 1 ½ cups sliced strawberries
- ¼ cup sugar (optional)
Instructions
- Peel the grapefruit and remove the thick skin from each segment by running a sharp knife blade through the narrow top of each segment.
- Holding the grapefruit over a large bowl to catch the juice gently pull the skin away from the grape fruit segments in large pieces.
- Place the skinned grape fruit pieces into the bowl with the juice.
- Rinse the strawberries under cold water and drain well. Trim the green stem and leaves off. Slice the strawberries into thin slices. Add them to the bowl of fruit.
- On a plastic cutting board peel one apple at a time. Core the apple then cut into thick slices. Cube the apple slices.
- Place the cubed apple pieces into the bowl with the mandrin orange juice. Toss the cubed apple with the citrus juice until all sides are wet. This will prevent the apples from browning. Continue peeling, coring, cubing and tossing the apples in the citrus juice until you have 2 cups of cubed apple pieces.
- Add the cubed apples to large bowl of prepared fruit. Or you can just add them to the bowl of grapefruit immediatly and toss to coat with citrus juice,
- Peel and slice the bananas. Add the slices of banana to the reserved orange juice and toss. Or add them immediatly to the bowl of grapefruit segments and juice. Toss the banana pieces with the juice to prevent browning.
- Drain the mandarin orange slices in a small plastic or wire strainer placed over a small bowl to catch the juice. Save the juice.
- Add the orange segments to the bowl with the grapefruit. Save the orange juice and set aside.
- Gently toss all of the fruit together to combine.
- Add ¼ cup of sugar if you like a sweeter fruit salad. Adding sugar is optional.
- Cover and chill the fruit salad in the refrigerator for at least an hour before serving.
- Serve the citrus fruit salad in individual serving cups with a sprig of mint for garnish.
- Makes about 12 one cup servings of fruit salad.
Video
Recipe Expert Tips
- Prepping the grapefruit: Segment the fresh grape fruit. No one enjoys chewing on the thick membrane or skin that separates the grapefruit segments.
- Prepping the fresh strawberries: To prevent the strawberries from absorbing moisture and getting mushy rinse under cold water before trimming the green stem and leaves off. Once the cap of the strawberry is removed the berry can and will absorb some water and start to become soft and mushy.
- Keeping fruit from browning: Peel and slice the fruit according to how quickly it browns. Leave the bananas until last because the brown quickly.
- Citrus juice is a natural preservative: Citrus juice will naturally prevent fruit like apple and banana that quickly browns once cut or peeled. Prevent the cubed apple and sliced banana from browning by tossing the fruit pieces with the mandarin orange or grapefruit juice.
Leave a Reply