DessertAI

Fruit Salad

Name: Fruit Salad
Prep time: 15 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Other
Ingredients: 2 piece Orange; 2 piece Crisp apple; 2 piece Banana; 2 piece Kiwi fruit; 200 g Seedless grapes; 20 ml Lemon juice; 30 g Honey; 200 g Full-fat natural yoghurt; 10 g Fresh mint

Orange, apple, banana, kiwi and grapes with a spoon of honey and lemon. Fifteen minutes, no cooking, and the order you cut things in matters more than the recipe.

Prep: 15 min
Cook: 0 min
Difficulty: Very easy

About this dish

Fruit salad is the dessert of a house that has fruit and no time, and it is old enough and universal enough that claiming an origin for it would be silly. What is worth saying is that it is usually made badly: cut too early, dressed too heavily, and left until the banana has gone brown and the whole bowl tastes the same. The two tricks below — acid first, soft fruit last — are the entire difference between a fruit salad and a bowl of tired fruit.

Vegetarian
Gluten-free
Not vegan because of Honey, Full-fat natural yoghurt
Contains dairy because of Full-fat natural yoghurt

Ingredients

4servings

2piecesOrange
2piecesCrisp apple
2piecesBanana
2piecesKiwi fruit
200gSeedless grapes
20mlLemon juice
30gHoney
200gFull-fat natural yoghurt (optional)
10gFresh mint

Instructions

Segment the oranges over a bowl so the juice is caught, then add the lemon juice to it.
3 min
Tip: Working over the bowl is not tidiness, it is the dressing: the juice that runs out while you cut is most of what will coat the rest, and there is no need to add water or syrup to a salad that makes its own.
Cut the apple and kiwi into pieces and turn them in the juice immediately.
5 min
Tip: Apple browns within minutes of meeting air, and the acid stops it. Cutting the apple first and dressing it last is the most common way this ends up looking grey.
Slice the banana and halve the grapes, and fold them in last with a light hand.
3 min
Tip: Banana is the fruit that will not survive being stirred. Add it at the end, fold twice, and stop — anything more and it smears across everything else.
Stir the honey into a spoonful of the collected juice until it dissolves, then trickle it over. Serve the yoghurt alongside if using.
2 min
Tip: Honey does not dissolve in cold fruit juice if you drop it in whole; it sinks and sits at the bottom in a lump. Loosening it first takes ten seconds and is the difference.
Tear the mint over the top and serve within the hour.
2 min
Tip: Tear, do not chop. A knife bruises mint and turns the cut edges black, and on a pale fruit salad that shows.