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The Best Winter Fruit Salad is filled with clementines, kiwi, pears, apples, and pomegranate, then tossed in sweet tart honey lime poppy seed dressing. These are all fruits that are in season in the fall and winter and when tossed with the most delicious dressing it’s a dinner winner for sure. This is a colorful healthy addition to any meal.
Serve this bright salad along with a hearty warm soup, like Copycat Zupas Wisconsin Cauliflower, or Minestrone. Then add some homemade bread, like Miracle No Knead Bread or Parker House Rolls for a light but satisfying meal.
Christmas Fruit Salad
Fruit. I seriously can’t get enough fruit. I have always loved having fruit in the house and my little girl loves fruit just as much as I do! Even though I love summer fruits and am totally a strawberry gal, some of my favorite fruits are winter fruits. Clementines for example are always at our house as soon as they start putting them in the grocery stores. And I am totally obsessed with kiwis. Apples, pears, pomegranate seeds, everything comes together so perfectly in this mouthwatering salad.
I made this winter fruit salad quite a few times during the holidays and it is so bright, vibrant and delicious. We love having a fruit salad at the dinner table when we eat with family, and this one is always requested! It’s so simple and requires a little chopping and gets tossed in a honey lime poppy seed dressing. I love using honey lime in my fruit salads and it gives it a sweet and tangy coating on the fruit.
What to Put into Easy Winter Fruit Salad
Full of festive fruits and covered in a beautiful dressing.
- Apple: sliced and chopped in bite sized.
- Pear: Slice and chop
- Bananas: Peeled and sliced
- Kiwi: Peeled and cut into rounds
- Clementines: Peeled and separated
- Pomegranate Seeds: These are so yummy
- Honey: Adds the sweet to the dressing
- Lime Juice: Gives a nice zing to the salad.
- Poppy Seeds: Crunch and eye appeal
- Fresh Mint: Adds a nice hit of freshness to the dressing
How to Make Winter Salad
Comes together quickly.
- Combine: In a large bowl place the apple, pear, bananas, kiwi, clementines and pomegranate seeds. Stir gently.
- Whisk: In a small bowl whisk the honey, lime juice, poppy seeds and mint.
- Toss: Drizzle the dressing over the fruit and toss gently to completely coat.
Pomegranate Hints
Pomegranates are a unique fruit, since you actually only eat the seeds. They are extremely healthy and taste so good. But getting your hands on them can be difficult. I love the color, flavor and crunch they add to this fruit salad. So here is one way to cut and deseed your pomegranates. Remember they can stain so take care about what you wear and use a plastic cutting board, as it can stain wood.
How to De-seed Pomegranates
Now if you don’t want to deal with taking the time do this or the mess, you can buy the arils already deseeded.
- Cut both ends off the fruit.
- Score the fruit in half all the way around the biggest part off of the fruit. Cut into the skin about half an inch all the way around. Using the knife, or your hand pry the two halves apart.
- Over a large bowl, hold one half of the fruit, seed side down in your hand. Using the back of a large spoon whack the pomegranate on the skin side all the way around.
- The seeds will fall through your hands into the bowl. Pry any arils left behind.
- Repeat with the other half.
Variations and Tips
This is an easy fruit salad to make the way you love.
- Bananas: Bananas tend to go brown quickly and are a very tender fruit. Don’t add the bananas till right before serving to keep them fresh looking and to save them from getting crushed by the other fruit.
- Apples: Apples also go brown quickly so I don’t usually add the apples or pears till I’m ready to add the dressing. The lime juice will keep them from turning brown.
- Chop it: Keep everything bite sized for easy eating and serving.
- Cold: Keep it chilled and cold so it doesn’t go mushy.
- Kiwis: Make sure your kiwis are ripe, if they aren’t just omit them. It’s better than having them bitter or super tart.
- Fruit variety: Use the variety of fruit you and your family like best. For instance we like fuji or honeycrisp apples and bartlett pears, but there are lots to choose from. Also feel free to omit or add fruit to your liking
How Long Does Fresh Fruit Salad Last?
If you have any leftovers I recommend taking out the bananas before putting in the fridge, they’ll be really mushy as leftovers. The rest will be keep perfectly for 2 days. Freeze any leftovers to use in smoothies.
More Fruity Dishes to Try
These are incredible tasty ways to get more fruit in your diet! Try them today!
- Christmas Fruit Salad
- Marshmallow Cream Cheese Fruit Dip
- Mouthwater Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon Pita Chips
- Granola Fruit Pizza
- Fruit Galette
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The Best Winter Fruit Salad
Ingredients
- 1 large apple peeled and sliced
- 1 pear sliced
- 2 large bananas peeled and sliced
- 3 kiwi fruit peeled and sliced into rounds
- 3 clementines peeled and separated
- 1/2 cup pomegranate seeds
Making the Dressing:
- 1 Tablespoon Honey
- 3 Tablespoons Lime Juice
- 1 Tablespoon poppy seeds
- 1 Tablespoons fresh mint chopped
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine apple, pear, bananas, kiwi, clementines, and pomegranate seeds. Lightly toss.
- In a small bowl whisk together honey, lime juice, poppy seeds, and mint. Drizzle over fruit and toss until coated. Serve.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hi there you need to add salt
Too much poppy seeds and the “dressing misted tasted off a bit to me. Loved the fruit suggestions though
Would love it but without kiwis and much hated mint
Love this simple and healthy salad.
I replace honey with maple syrup…and turned out
delicious.
Thank you!
Fantastic. Stays fresh on buffet for a while. I add pineapple and blueberry
Tried it for my kid’s bday party – everyone loved it – I added half honey and half maple syrup – delicious – thanks ?
Excellent !!! Definitely a keeper.
Does pomegranate have seeds in them. And If do are they eaten with the salad?
Thanks
Pomegranates do have seeds. They are so small though you don’t realize that you are eating them. So good!!
Thank you for the winter fruit salad recipe. I served it to company as dessert after a hearty beef mushroom barley soup.. it was easy to assemble, colorful and delicious. I suggest adding a bit of watwr or extra honey to the sauce to calm the tartness of the lime juice. I used sesame instead of poppy seeds. My guests loved it!
How many people does it serve? I’m serving several families for Thanksgiving.
It will feed about 12 people.
This is delicious. I did not add the poppy seeds and replaced the honey with Agave. I like things “limey” so I doubled the lime juice
This looks beautiful! I am looking forward to something healthy! Thanks for sharing.
Hi!
I made this for Super Bowl and it was delish! I used CaraCara oranges (thats what I had) .and I haved the poppy seeds (and I think that was still too much), But the combo of everything was spot on. And it was nice to have something light and refreshing…and healthy.
Why didn’t you publish this in December to counteract all the sheep following bloggers?
Looks delicious. I love pomegranate seeds! I served winter fruit salad with lemon coconut mousse https://israelisalad.wordpress.com/2017/01/26/winter-fruit-salad-with-lemon-coconut-mousse/ last weekend, and it was a big hit.