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Summer of 2016: Awakening the Fresh Fruit Salad

June 12, 2016 by Valerie Lugonja 4 Comments

Fresh Fruit Salad: Refreshing as a Summer Snack or the Grand Finale!

1 Canadian Prairie Fruit Salad

Raised on seasonal food, Vanja craves fresh fruit salads as soon as the summer sun rises over the horizon to blister a day.  A fresh fruit salad was a treat in our Alberta prairie home, not a consistent summer memory. When mom made it, she would use pineapple tidbits instead of fresh pineapple, likely due to its cost and accessibility. Sometimes, she would throw in a can of fruit cocktail. Judy and I would fight over who got the lone red cherry. Cherries rarely appeared in our summer fruit salads as they were a such a short season delicacy that we feasted on baskets of them when in season – much too special to add to anything.

2 Canadian Prairie Fruit Salad

I didn’t make fresh fruit salads a staple in the lives of my own children. Fresh fruit was in abundance in our home, but as there were just three of us, the amount of fruit necessary to make a tasty well rounded fresh fruit salad seemed “too much” for “just us”. But, I have learned it is most definitely not. Children and adults eat much more fresh fruit when in a fresh fruit salad. There is something magical about the mix of flavours and textures that makes it a bit addictive. Throughout the day, when there is a fresh fruit salad in the fridge, the fridge door swings open with the frequency of an old saloon door from days long gone.

3 Canadian Prairie Fruit Salad

Presentation is key, and the wide mouthed jar is my preference as it takes less space in the fridge and when fruit is layered, it tends to keep better. Above, my jar is too small to fit all of the fruit I had planned, and the crisp, juicy cubes of watermelon worked well in the bottom of the service bowl. No one knew it was there, and that didn’t matter. Tossed with the fruit in the jar, it adds so much to the flavour, and texture! The wide mouthed jar idea is an unexpected “wow” factor when presenting. No one counts the layers and analyzes the variety of fruit. If a couple of fruits don’t fit in the jar, toss them into the bottom of the service bowl just prior to serving. Keeping the sliced fruit separate until service prolongs the life of the salad.

4 Canadian Prairie Fruit Salad

It started to rain in the middle of my photo shoot, so I emptied the jar and tossed the fruit rather quickly!

5 Canadian Prairie Fruit Salad

Garnishing with mint is essential not only visually, but it adds such unexpected refreshment! I have to tell my guests to eat it; I now also suggest guests sprinkle a pinch of thinly sliced mint into their serving and combine it with their fruit. I try to add a small bowl of shredded mint on the side.

6 Canadian Prairie Fruit Salad

Nothing more is necessary, yet a dollop of thick fresh homemade yogurt is a decadent compliment.

8 Canadian Prairie Fruit Salad

The wide-mouthed jar presentation idea first came to me in Bosnia, 2014, when visiting Vanja’s dad immediately after the flood. We cleaned and cleaned and revived Petar’s home, then celebrated with a Serbian Grilled Meat Platter and I served the Fresh Fruit Salad as the Grand Finale that evening!

Petar’s Famous Rostilj: The Serbian Grilled Meat Platter

9 Layered Fresh Fruit Salad

Home grown fruit is gleaned from the yard and made into a seasonal salad there, all summer long. The addition of the exotic fruits is a rare specialty as the country is still recovering and in the countryside, few have money to buy anything they don’t grow on their own, unless it is a necessity. This salad was a huge sensation! Look at Vanja’s dad, below!

10 Layered Fresh Fruit Salad 11 Layered Fresh Fruit Salad

Above, the salad in Bosna with their home grown peaches, black berries, cherries, pears and apples: below, the salad I made last week.

12 Canadian Prairie Fruit Salad 13 Layered Fresh Fruit Salad

When was the last time you made a fresh fruit salad for your family or guests? This is our new standard, in the fridge daily, summer treat!

Print

Fresh Fruit Salad



Course Dessert
Cuisine Canadian
Prep Time 30 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 12 -16
Author Valerie Lugonja

Ingredients

  • 1/2 fresh pineapple , cleaned and diced into small bites
  • 1 500 g basket of fresh strawberries , cleaned and halved or quartered, depending upon size
  • 1 500 g basket of fresh blueberries , cleaned
  • 500 g seedless green grapes , cleaned, stems removed
  • 500 g sweet cherries , pitted and halved (high quality frozen sweet cherries work)
  • 250-400 g basket of blackberries , washed (optional)
  • 1 Granny Smith Apple , cleaned and diced, skin on
  • 1 Red Delicious Apple , cleaned and diced, skin on
  • juice of one lemon
  • 3-4 large bananas , sliced
  • juice of another lemon
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 500 g basket of fresh raspberries
  • fresh mint
  • whipping cream or homemade yogurt , optional

Instructions

  1. Layer each fruit, as listed in above ingredient list, in a large pedestal bowl; ensure the colour of each layer is visible on the outer edge of the bowl, as you continue each layer
  2. Sprinkle granulated sugar over the entire layer, then add the rasperries on the centre of the bananas as the crowning glory of the dish
  3. Refrigerate overnight, or for 4-6 hours until icy cold and sugar has dissolved
  4. Present to guests; dump into a huge bowl, gently toss
  5. Serve with fresh mint and whipping cream

Recipe Notes

Essential Fruits for Flavour and Texture
Sliced Fresh Sweet Strawberries
Diced Sweet Fresh Pineapple
Whole Green Grapes (or Red Seedless Grapes, but green add visual appeal)
Cherries (Fresh Pitted or high quality frozen)
Fresh Firm Sliced Bananas
Sweet Fresh Diced Watermelon
Sweet Diced Apples or Peach
(A black fruit if in season (blue berry, blackberry, Saskatoon) for visual appeal, as well)
Garnish with Mint
Chiffonade mint as a side to add pinches to individual servings as the powerful flavour addition of the mint doubles the pleasure for those who love mint
Presentation
I prefer to serve in a gigantic wide mouthed 2 litre or larger jar with the fruit layered for presentation, then “dump” gently into a large bowl for serving, garnished with mint
However, some jars are not big enough for all layers, so I have a couple fruits in the bottom of the serving bowl, not in the jar, then just add them to the toss (watermelon is perfect in the bowl, not the jar)

14 Canadian Prairie Fruit Salad 15 Canadian Prairie Fruit Salad

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Filed Under: Salads, Summer, Sweets and Treats Tagged With: Apples, Banana, Blackberries, Blueberries, Cherries, Grapes, Lemons, Peach, Pineapple, Raspberries, Strawberries, Watermelon

About Valerie Lugonja

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Educator, Writer, Gardener and Traveler who believes in buying and eating locally, and most importantly cooking at home! As a brand new Gramsy, so be prepared to hear a lot about this new role in her life!
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« An Exotic Garnish: Pineapple Flowers
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Comments

  1. Brendi says

    June 12, 2016 at 1:19 pm

    Valerie, once again you are taking me back to my childhood. You will probably remember that grocers closed on Saturday evening between 5 and 6 p.m. and didn’t open again until 9 a.m. Monday morning when we were children. My dad would go around to the ones closest to us and ask what they had that wouldn’t keep until Monday. Ripe fruits and vegetables went into a box to be brought home and dealt with immediately. Saturday supper all summer was a huge platter of fresh fruit with either cheese or sherbet and dad’s homemade raisin bread, toasted to golden perfection. The vegetables were chopped and sliced and added to the stock pot to simmer into soups and stews or bagged and frozen. I still love a fresh fruit salad with raisin toast as a meal. Thank you for the special memories that are blessing my Sunday afternoon. Brendi

    Reply
    • Valerie Lugonja says

      June 13, 2016 at 10:16 am

      Most definitely remember how urgent it was to get the supplies needed for Sunday dinner on Saturday… and LOVED that the entire world shut down so everyone could be at home together on those precious Sundays. Yes, I always felt sorry for the gas station attendants and wondered why they had to be open, and the movie theater ushers… In my little world, those were the only 2 “professions” that worked on Sundays, besides my dad! He drove for Greyhound and though I loved those lazy, quiet Sundays – they would have been so much better if he was home with us!
      XO
      V

      Reply
  2. Cindy MacDonell says

    June 13, 2016 at 9:46 am

    Oh this looks so good! I realized I have not made fruit salad since my son got married. My best friend and I decided we could make edible arrangements for the wedding

    How hard could that be? We soon realized why they charge the prices they do for those gorgeous arrangements LOL!! They turned out ok but certainly a huge amount of time and then what to do with all the “leftover scraps”

    We made a huge bowl of fruit salad for the reception dessert and gift opening on Sunday but needless to say when my daughter got married 2 years later this was not something we were going to attempt again. LOL!

    Just love your blog and all the memories it brings back.

    Thanks so much Val!

    Reply
    • Valerie Lugonja says

      June 13, 2016 at 10:13 am

      Wonderful to hear from you, Cindy!
      I can’t even imagine where you would store the arrangements for a wedding!!! GAH! We momsies are certainly a rare and crazy breed. What we won’t do for our kids! I bet you didn’t want to make another fruit salad for a few years, either! Glad this opened the flood gate of those memories for you, and even happier you shared them with me!
      Hope you make another fresh fruit salad this summer!
      XO
      Valerie

      Reply

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