Fruit Salad Recipe for a Crowd

Fruit Salad Recipe for a Crowd is bursting with sweet and juicy fruits and berries. This big batch recipe is perfect for parties and potlucks.

We’re knocking on the door to summer and I for one can’t wait for warm nights spent outdoors with friends and family while fireflies show off to a choir of cicadas (ask me how excited I am for this year’s rare cicada season — screaming!)

In addition to whipping up batches of Best Ever Pasta Salad and Judy’s Baked Beans anytime we entertain in the warmer months, I love to have a big fresh fruit salad on hand to round out the meal.

A serving bowl of sweet and snappy fruit salad for a crowd is refreshing, light, and healthy. It’s the perfect dish to have on hand for cookouts, parties, baby or bridal showers, grad parties, and any get together in between!

Best Fruit Salad Recipe Ingredients

It may seem like you can combine all your favorite fruits to create a fruit salad and, technically, you’d be right! That said, I happen to believe this particular mix of tropical fruits, sweet berries, and pomegranate arils achieves an ideal balance of sweet, tart, crispy, and juicy. It’s actually quite addicting! Here’s what you’ll need:

• Pineapple: chopped, fresh pineapple forms the base of this fruity salad. Don’t miss my tutorial on how to trim and chop a pineapple.
• Mango: did you know summer is champagne mango (aka yellow mango) season? This is my favorite mango variety because they’re exceptionally sweet and juicy.
• Strawberries: provide sweetness and a beautiful pop of red to the salad.
• Kiwi: my kids are kiwi-crazy and love to see it in their bowls of fruit salad. You can use green or yellow kiwi.
• Pomegranate: I adore the jewel-tone pops of color and sweet-tart taste pomegranate arils bring to this fruit salad mix. You can buy just the arils, though I’ll show you below how to de-seed a pomegranate with zero mess.
• Lime + Honey: a drizzle of both creates the “dressing” for this fruity salad. Just a little of each helps create a light and luscious sauce that brings the salad together into a cohesive dish.

As satisfying as this dish is during the warmer months using fresh summer fruits, all the ingredients are readily available during the cold months so it can be made year round. A serving bowl of this easy fruit salad recipe would be a festive and welcomed addition to any Christmas or winter celebration!

How to Keep Fruit Salad from Getting Soggy

We’ve all experienced a soft and soggy scoop of fruit salad before. Dislike! Here are my recommendations for ensuring your summer fruit salad is fresh, snappy, and still dazzling at serving time.

• If making fully ahead: It’s best to serve this fruit salad the same day it’s made. I recommend assembling the fruit salad plus dressing up to a couple hours ahead of time, which gives the ingredients time to macerate without becoming overly soft and soggy.
• If prepping ahead: If you’re looking to save time on the day you’re serving the salad, peel/chop the fruit components up to 2 days ahead of time but store them separately. Combine the ingredients then dress with lime juice and honey up to a couple hours ahead of serving.

Aside from parties and potlucks, I like having a bowl of fruit salad in the fridge as a healthy, after-school snack for my kids, or to scoop as an easy side dish with their dinner entrees. For these purposes, the fruit salad can hang out in the fridge for up to 3 days after assembling because my kids don’t care if the fruit becomes a little soft.

Try this Fresh and Summery Appetizer

How to Make Fruit Salad for a Crowd

Step 1: Prep the fruits and berries.

Trim / prep / peel / chop fresh fruits, berries, and pomegranate arils in a large mixing bowl or serving bowl. Again, we’ve got:

• Mango: peeled then chopped
• Strawberries: trimmed then chopped
• Pineapple: trimmed then chopped
• Kiwi: peeled then chopped
• Pomegranate arils

Some other fruits to swap out or add into the mix are blueberries, blackberries, and cantaloupe. Raspberries, nectarines, or peaches would also be DIVINE — but fold those into the mix just before serving since they’re so delicate!

How to Seed a Pomegranate

Trust me when I tell you I’ve tried every method under the sun for removing pomegranate seeds, aka arils, from a pomegranate and this is BY FAR the best one (this is a hill I’m willing to die on). There is no mess, splatters, stains, nor whacking with a wooden spoon required!

Pomegranate Step 1: Score a square around the blossom end.

Cut deep enough to go through the peel, but not deep enough to where you’re slicing into the pomegranate seeds. Use the blossom to peel away the square.

Pomegranate Step 2: Vertically score the membrane lines.

Do you see the 6 white vertical membranes separating the 5 clusters of arils from each other? Use your knife to score the skin inline with the membranes. Again, not too deep — just enough to cut through the skin/pith.

Pomegranate Step 3: Open the pomegranate and remove the seeds.

The vertical score lines will allow you to open the pomegranate like a flower. Next, use your fingertips to pop the seeds out into a bowl of water.

Again, there is zero mess using this method, as you can see!

Pomegranate Step 4: Clean the arils.

Little bits of pith might remain on the arils, so I like to swish them around in a bowl of cold water and scoop out anything that floats to the top. Drain in a colander in between rinsing. I do this maybe two or three times.

Voila — pomegranate seeds made easy!

Step 2: Dress the Fruit Salad

Drizzle fresh lime juice and honey over the ingredients then fold to combine. It’s hard to say how much of each you’ll need because fruit and berries don’t come with pre-determined sweetness levels.

I start with 1/2 lime and about 2 teaspoons of honey, let the fruit macerate for a couple of hours, then taste and add more of each if needed.

• Tip: want to keep this fruit salad vegan? Use powdered sugar or maple syrup instead of honey. SO delicious!

Step 3: Let the Fruit Salad Macerate.

Refrigerate the fruit salad for at least 30 minutes, and up to a few hours ahead of serving, in order to macerate — that is, draw out the natural juices of the fruits to combine and make a cohesive salad. It truly makes a HUGE difference!

After that, its time to share! Feel free to garnish the serving bowl with fresh mint, as I’ve shown here. This is always a fun touch for parties. Looks fancy but just takes a minute.

How to Store Fruit Salad

Store the fruit salad directly in the mixing bowl or in a large serving bowl covered with a lid or saran wrap / press-n-seal prior to serving.

Leftovers can be saved for up to 3 days, though the fruit will become softer and saucier with each passing day.

Transform Leftovers

Fruit salad for a crowd will serve 8-10 people, and if you have leftovers, they repurpose beautifully!

• Smoothie: Pour the leftover fruit salad into a blender with yogurt and/or a splash of milk then blend until smooth.
• Lazy Girl Sorbet: Scoop leftovers into a freezer-safe container or Ziplock freezer bag then freeze flat. Pour the frozen fruit into a blender or food processor then blend until smooth. Sorbet texture — no churning required!

More Crowd-Pleasing Recipes

Fruit Salad Recipe for a Crowd

Description

Fruit Salad Recipe for a Crowd is bursting with sweet and juicy fruits and berries. This big batch recipe is perfect for parties and potlucks.

Ingredients

• 4 cups chopped pineapple (~1 small pineapple)
• 1lb strawberries, chopped
• 4 kiwi, peeled then chopped
• 2 mangoes, peeled then chopped (Champagne mangoes recommended)
• 1 pomegranate, seeded (~1 cup arils)
• juice of 1/2 lime
• drizzle of honey

Directions

1. Add the fruits and berries to a large mixing or serving bowl then squeeze the lime juice on top and drizzle with honey, 1-2 teaspoons. Fold with a spatula to combine then refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving.
2. Taste prior to serving then add more lime juice for tartness, and/or honey for sweetness. For best results, serve the Fruit Salad the same day it’s assembled. Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Notes

• Use powdered sugar or maple syrup instead of honey to make this recipe vegan.
• Have leftovers? Turn them into a fresh fruit smoothie, or freeze then blend to create a quick-version of sorbet.
• These photos show mint as an optional garnish.

This recipe is courtesy of Iowa Girl Eats, http://iowagirleats.com.

Photos by Ashley McLaughlin