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This Winter Fruit Salad is the perfect way to brighten up any cold winter day. It’s made with apple, mandarin orange, banana, kiwi, and pomegranate seeds, all tossed in a sweet, tangy Greek yogurt dressing.

above image of kiwi, mandarin orange, apple, banana, and pomegranate seeds in a bowl with dressing.


Easy Creamy Fruit Salad Recipe

Did you know fruit salad doesn’t just have to be reserved for the summer?

This Winter Fruit Salad is one of my favorite sweet treats to make during the cold winter months. It’s the perfect way to brighten up any day!

This creamy fruit salad features a blend of winter fruit, the sweet burst of pomegranate seeds, and a tasty dressing made with yogurt, poppy seeds, honey, and orange juice. It’s vibrant, fresh, sweet, and totally delicious!

Enjoy this easy fruit salad as-is, or substitute any of your favorite fruits! It makes the perfect snack, side dish, or dessert.

Ingredients Needed

  • Apples – Cored and diced. If you like to remove the peel, feel free to do so, but I don’t find it necessary!
  • Mandarins – Peeled and segmented. There is no need to chop into smaller pieces. They fit right in with the rest of the fruit just fine as-is.
  • Bananas – Peeled and sliced.
  • Kiwis – Technically, you can eat a kiwi’s skin, but I recommend removing it. It’s a bit fibrous and fuzzy, which can be unpleasant in a creamy fruit salad!
  • Pomegranate Arils – You can find ready-to-go pomegranate seeds at many grocery stores, OR you can easily seed one yourself, see my tips here.
  • Poppy Seed Dressing – Our fruit salad dressing is made with plain Greek yogurt, poppy seeds, honey, and orange juice. If you don’t have honey, maple syrup would also make a great natural sweetener for the dressing.

How to Make Fruit Salad

This recipe for fruit salad is just as easy as any fruit salad recipe! Just a little bit of fruit prep, then you toss everything together in a bowl.

  1. Combine the fruit: Wash, peel, and slice all the fruit as necessary, then add it in a large mixing bowl.
  2. Add the dressing: In a small bowl, whisk together the yogurt, poppy seeds, honey, and orange juice until well combined. Pour that over the fruit, gently toss until evenly coated, then store or serve.

How Do I Keep Fruit Salad from Getting Watery?

There really isn’t a whole lot that you can do to prevent the fruit from releasing water as it sits. The sooner you serve your assembled fruit salad, the better.

How Do I Keep Fresh Fruit Salad from Turning Brown?

As with the texture, the color of the fruit will change as it sits and oxidizes. The good news is that the orange juice in the dressing helps to slow this process down so that your fruit looks fresher for longer.

But, as I mentioned previously – the sooner you serve it the better!

Tips and Notes

  • Use ripe (but not too ripe) bananas. I recommend using bananas that have just turned from yellow-green to yellow. These are still sweet but have enough integrity to hold up in the salad. Super-ripe bananas will turn to mush.
  • Dice and slice evenly. While all the fruit will be different, I recommend keeping everything relatively similar in size for a more uniform fruit salad.
  • Toss gently. You want to ensure that all the fruit is evenly coated in the dressing, but be sure to do so gently, or you’ll end up mashing/tearing up the fruit.

Variations

  • Make it dairy-free. You can easily make this into a non-dairy fruit salad by simply swapping the Greek yogurt out for a non-dairy variety. Depending on the sugar content of the yogurt you use, you may need to adjust the amount of honey. I recommend starting with less, tasting, and adding more as needed before dressing the salad.
  • Use other fruit. You can use pretty much any fruit in this recipe. Feel free to add or change them out for whatever is in season or whatever you have available to you. Try grapes, pineapple, berries, plums, pears, you name it.
  • Add nuts. Want to give your creamy fruit salad a little bit of crunch? Try tossing in a handful of chopped walnuts or pecans.
closeup image of a winter fruit salad tossed in yogurt dressing in a bowl.

Serving Suggestions

The beauty of fruit salad is it can be served with breakfast, as a snack, as a side dish, or even as a dessert!

Enjoy it for breakfast with:

Serve it as an after dinner dessert or as a side dish with a comforting Winter dinner such as:

How to Store

This fruit salad will stay fresh for about 24 hours in the fridge. Keep in mind, the longer the fruit sits the more the texture of the fruit will be affected.

More Fruity Recipes You’ll Love

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closeup image of a winter fruit salad tossed in yogurt dressing in a bowl.

Winter Fruit Salad

5 from 1 vote
This Winter Fruit Salad is the perfect way to brighten up any cold winter day. It's made with apple, mandarin orange, banana, kiwi, and pomegranate seeds all tossed in a sweet and tangy Greek yogurt dressing.
Servings 6
Prep Time 15 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes

Ingredients
  

  • 2 apples cored and diced
  • 6 mandarins peeled and segmented
  • 2 bananas peeled and sliced
  • 5 kiwis peeled and diced
  • 1 cup pomegranate arils seeds
  • ¼ cup plain greek yogurt
  • 1 tablespoons poppy seeds
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 2 tablespoons orange juice

Instructions

  • Add apples, mandarins, bananas, kiwis and pomegranate arils to a large bowl.
  • In a small bowl whisk together the greek yogurt, poppy seeds, honey, and orange juice.
  • Pour dressing over fruit and gently toss to coat.
  • Fruit salad will keep for about 24 hours.

Notes

 Feel free to swap out dairy greek yogurt for non-dairy greek yogurt. Depending on the sugar content of the  non-dairy greek yogurt you may have to adjust the amount of honey.
Keyword: Winter Fruit Salad
Course: Salad
Author: Lexi


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