This Winter Fruit Salad is a colorful dish to brighten up any holiday meal or party! Fresh pineapple, kiwi, mandarin oranges, apple, pear, and pomegranate arils are tossed in a honey-lime poppy seed dressing, adding a delicious and tasty touch!
Summer is a popular time for fruit salads because so many favorite fruits are fresh. In the winter there still are many fruits that are in season and taste fantastic. This winter fruit salad combines my favorite winter fruits with a tasty honey-lime poppyseed dressing. Adults and kids love it!
This winter fruit salad is an easy and quick recipe to make! It’s a great way to add nutrition to your meals. It would also be the perfect healthier and vibrant dish to serve at Thanksgiving!
Fruits in Winter Fruit Salad:
Pineapple– Fresh is best! But canned will work too.
Kiwis- One of the best winter fruits in my opinion! The green color is so vibrant and my kids love how it looks!
Mandarin oranges– I was going to use clementine oranges but the ones I bought were hard to peel and I was short on time so I used a couple of cans and that works just fine!
Apples– I prefer Gala or Fuji.
Pear– Bartlette pears are my favorite because I think they have the best pear flavor.
Pomegranate– Oh how I love pomegranates! (This recipe made me fall in love with pomegranates!) My kids loved helping me deseed the pomegranate and found this fruit fascinating! We bought a large pomegranate but you could also buy the container with the pomegranate arils to save time.
Lemon & Lime Zest + Lime Juice for the dressing– Mix that in with some honey and poppyseeds and it gives the already delicious and fresh fruit even more flavor! I tested with just lemon and honey and then just lime and honey and the lime juice was MUCH better! I still kept the lemon zest because I thought that added another great flavor element. But if you’d prefer to leave it out so it’s one less thing to buy you can.
Optional Mint Leaf– I actually bought that for this recipe but forgot to add it! If you like it, feel free to include it. It adds another pretty color to this winter fruit salad but it’s ok if you don’t add it.
I wanted this to be a fruit salad my kids would love as well as adults. That’s why it has a variety of fruit and bite-sized pieces. If you’d rather slice the fruit (apples, pears, and kiwis) you can do that instead of dicing it.
We have been enjoying this fruit salad the last couple of days and it’s been a hit with all of my kids! Ages 1-10!
Can I Make this in Advance?
Yes! I know you can because this recipe took me 3 days to make! Real-life people! You can cut the pineapple, deseed the pomegranate, peel the mandarines/clementines, and peel and dice the kiwis ahead of time. Just keep it all in the fridge until you are ready to make this Winter Fruit Salad.
Once the Winter Fruit Salad is put together it’s best to serve right away (or within a few hours), then put the leftovers in the fridge. It still tastes great for a couple of days but won’t look as pretty. You can even turn the leftovers into a smoothie if you’d like!
This Winter Fruit Salad is the perfect vibrant and healthy addition to any meal, party, Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner!
Enjoy!
Winter Fruit Salad
Ingredients
Honey-Lime Dressing:
- 3 tablespoons honey
- Zest of lemon
- Zest of lime
- 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (from 2 limes)
- 1 teaspoon poppy seeds
Fruit Salad:
- 3 cups cubed pineapple (fresh if possible)
- 5 ripe kiwis, peeled and diced
- 2 cups of mandarin or clementine orange segments (or 2 cans (15 oz. each) mandarin oranges, drained)
- 2 small apples (fuji or gala), diced
- 1 large Bartlett pear, diced
- 1 large pomegranate, giving you around 1- 1 ½ cups of arils/seeds
- Optional garnish: fresh mint leaves
Instructions
- For the dressing: In a small bowl, whisk together the honey, zest of the lemon and lime, and ¼ cup lime juice. (If honey is too cold for the mixture to come together you can microwave it quickly.) Whisk in the poppy seeds and set aside.
- For the fruit salad: In a large bowl toss together all of the prepared fruit, setting aside about ½ cup of the pomegranate arils. Pour prepared Honey-Lime dressing over the fruit and gently toss to coat. Top with remaining ½ cup of pomegranate aril seeds and mint leaves if using.
- Serve and enjoy!
That salad is so colorful! The dressing sounds delicious too!
Thank you! It was a lot of fun to make this with my kids and enjoy it. You’ll love it! 🙂
Looks beautiful and delicious!
Thank you Rebecca! 💗