What makes a good fruit salad?

[novocaned]

Just made a big bowl of melon, strawbs, grapes and banana and it was underwhelming. Is there such a thing as fruit salad that is GREAT?

Banana in fruit salad isn’t nice. Have you tried a mixture of tinned and fresh? Tinned papaya and pineapple, fresh mango and grapes?

Use flat lemonade or 7 up as the syrup; you probably could add something more punchy in terms of flavour - raspberries for example, or pineapple.
One of my favourite combinations is rasp & mango, with some green apple for crunch.

I would say avoid anything with skin, so no apples, pears etc
Strawberries, melon, blueberries, pineapple, mango etc are good - nothing ‘gristly’ or tough, and no banana as it goes slimy

Yep take out the banana and add an orange instead.

You can use tinned pineapple in fruit juice too and then you’d have lovely juice with it. I prefer fruit juice to syrup or anything artificially sweet.

Well I'd leave the banana out TBH. Unless you're serving it immediately. Banana goes squishy & unpleasant very quickly.

I used to make fruit salad quite often. Grapes, citrus (tinned mandarin if lazy, proper oranges if not), kiwi slices, passion fruit seeds - buy fresh ones very wrinkly are best, mango cubes, melon (canteloupe or honeydew are best for flavour, price & not falling apart) pineapple, apple. Variety of textures & sizes, some sweet, some sharp. Basically, variety.

passion fruit is a must

Just cut rather than slightly mushy.

mango, banana, oranges, passion fruit

Strawberries, melon, mango, orange slices (deskinned) or tinned mandarins, halved grapes and a good slug of Cointreau

Fresh fruit - strawberries, raspberries, nectarines, kiwi fruit, melon
Tinned fruit - peaches, pineapple and orange segments

Then all covered liberally with a sugar syrup made from sugar, water, fresh mint and lemon juice.

My grandmother was a cook for a large country estate and she could make these with her eyes closed..... she always did one for sunday lunch and it was such a treat.

YY agree if using tinned fruit, definitely choose tinned in juice not syrup.

I'd only use tinned pineapple in syrup for upside down cake. IDK why people buy fruit in syrup. Surely they can't taste the fruit.

A good splosh of a fruit liqueur such as limoncello or Licor 43. Serve with some almond biscuits for interest.

Cut a pineapple in half lengthways. Carefully cut the flesh out of it leaving two intact, 'shells.'
Make a fruit salad from the chopped pineapple flesh, and add mango, strawberries, blueberries, black grapes etc. (I agree about no fruit with skin on but I'd make an exception for black grapes in a fruit salad.)

Put the fruit salad in the empty pineapple shells to serve.

Add in some orange juice as a liquid and leave it to rest a bit.

And no banana.

Fruit salad is always going to be a bit underwhelming unless there is meringue and double cream involved

I'm contrast to others I would keep the banana but maybe add some raspberries or blueberries

My pet hates in fruit salad are apple, pear and orange

Lime dressing, Google it, it’s a game changer for fruit salad.

See I love a banana in a fruit salad if and only if it is going to be eaten straight away. I love how it soaks up the flavour of the other fruit.

Make sure the fruit is tasty and ripe to start with. Then you need a mix of flavours, so nectarine, pineapple, strawb, grape, rasps then apple for crunch and contrast.

I love fruit salad. Think the key is having fruit with a variety of textures and flavors: crunchy, bright, soft, sweet, tropical. I don't add any kind of syrup or canned fruit -- seems like the opposite of what I like (too sticky sweet).

My fruit salad: seedless watermelon, cherry, orange, strawberry, grape, blackberry, mango, kiwi.

I don't add honeydew or banana -- the first is too watery/not flavorful enough and the second goes too mushy.

A good fruit salad has to have kiwi fruit.

But I'm also like a red fruit salad: strawberries, raspberries, cherries, plums etc.

Pomegranate seeds, kiwi, watermelon, strawberries, blueberries and fresh pineapple is a good colourful combo - I always dress it with lemon juice and a bit of caster sugar.

Tropical fruit salad with lime dressing also good. Now i need a fruit salad!

Take out the banana, the texture is all wrong. Pineapple is much better. Apples add a nice change of texture too.

Cointreau. Doesn’t really matter what fruit goes in as long as there’s plenty of alcohol and a good sugar syrup

I think apples are nice in a fruit salad but they aren't in season at the moment. I squeeze over a lot of lemon or lime juice and sprinkle on about a tsp of caster sugar. The sugar brings the juices out. Leave it to sit a while before serving up.

Why has nobody mentioned tinned lychees yet? Was a total game changer in the fruit salad world when I had in Australia!

You need the right melon - not too under or over ripe, with a good flavour. Same with strawberries - firm but sweet and full of flavour, then add some peeled cubed pear and apple, orange and pineapple, maybe blueberries. Not raspberries as they squash too easily. Passionfruit seeds taste good but are horrible in your teeth, so I'd just add a splash of passionfruit and mango fruit juice as the dressing.

Pomegranate seeds and orange flower water (like in the Middle East/Maghreb) are compulsory!