This easy Fruit Salad With Creamy Vanilla Yogurt Dressing is the perfect way to enjoy all the fresh and juicy fruit of the summer season!
A gorgeous fruit salad with its rainbow of colors and variety of flavors and textures is so refreshing and delicious. And topping it with a smooth, sweet and creamy vanilla yogurt dressing makes it even better!
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Summer comes with an abundance of super fresh and in-season fruit, and making a quick and easy fruit salad is my favorite way to enjoy it all. You can use almost any fruit that you'd like, and you can serve it for breakfast, brunch, a snack, a side dish, or even dessert.
It's perfect, of course, to serve at any summer picnic, barbecue or potluck (always a favorite), but it's also nice to have a big bowl in the fridge just to snack on.
It's so worth it to spend a little time prepping and chopping a bunch of fruit so that it's at the ready whenever those hunger pangs come calling. And you can feel good about eating some healthy fruit instead of grabbing a less-good-for-you alternative.
And every salad needs a little dressing. Even fruit salad. Am I right or am I right?
And since I'm a big fan of creamy dressing, I mix together vanilla yogurt with vanilla extract (yes, more vanilla!) and pure maple syrup or honey for a creamy fruit salad dressing that is so good and turns a plain fruit salad into something super special!
Ingredients You Need
- Fresh strawberries
- Fresh blueberries
- Fresh kiwi *See Note below.
- Fresh pineapple
- Mandarin oranges (canned)
- Vanilla yogurt
- Vanilla extract
- Pure maple syrup (or honey)
*Note: If you can't get fresh kiwi, green seedless grapes, sliced in half, are a good substitute.
Got an Instant Pot with the yogurt function? Check out my recipe for Easy Instant Pot Vanilla Yogurt. It's excellent in this recipe!
How to Make Fruit Salad With Creamy Vanilla Yogurt Dressing
Place the chopped strawberries, blueberries, chopped kiwi, pineapple chunks, and oranges in a large bowl.
Toss gently to combine
In a small bowl, stir together the vanilla yogurt, vanilla extract and maple syrup until well combined.
Spoon the fruit salad into individual serving bowls and drizzle each serving with some of the creamy yogurt dressing. Enjoy!
Tips & Tidbits
- The quality of your fruit will make or break your fruit salad. Make sure it is fresh and perfectly ripe. You don't want a bowl of super sour fruit.
- After washing your fruit, be sure to dry it as best as you can so your salad isn't watery (excess water will also cause the fruit to degrade faster).
- This recipe has my favorite combination of fruits, but the great thing about a fruit salad is you can add whatever fruits you like best!
- Keep the quantities of each fruit the same so that you don't have too much of any one fruit.
- Chop the fruit into similarly-sized pieces. Smaller berries like blueberries, raspberries and blackberries should be kept whole.
- If adding fruits that will brown once sliced (such as apples, pears, or bananas), toss them with citrus juice (lemon, lime, orange, etc.) before adding to the salad to help prevent browning.
- If adding bananas, they do tend to get soft and mushy very quickly, so I would recommend waiting and adding them to the salad right before serving.
- Fruit salad looks its best and has the best texture when it's freshly made. You can prep it ahead of time, but just know that the longer the chopped fruit sits, the more it will soften, release some of its liquid, and lose its vibrant color.
- Store the fruit salad and dressing in separate airtight containers in the refrigerator for 3 to 5 days.
Let me tell you, this fruit salad tastes as good as it looks, and it's always a crowd-pleaser. I'll be making it all summer long. And be sure to also check out my Berry Cheesecake Salad.
I hope you try this recipe for Fruit Salad With Creamy Vanilla Yogurt Dressing and love it as much as I do. Thanks for visiting today!
More Fruit Recipes to Try
If you make this recipe, I'd love to know how it went. Please leave a comment and star rating below. Thanks!
📋Recipe
Fruit Salad With Creamy Vanilla Yogurt Dressing
Ingredients
For the Fruit Salad:
- 1 cup chopped fresh strawberries, about ½ pound, chop each berry into quarters or sixths depending on the size
- 1 cup fresh blueberries, about ½ pint
- 1 cup fresh sliced kiwi, 2 to 3 kiwi depending on size, peel and slice into quarter-moons about ¼" thick
- 1 cup fresh pineapple chunks, about ¾" to 1" pieces
- 1 (15-ounce) can mandarin oranges, drained
For the Creamy Vanilla Yogurt Dressing:
- 1 cup vanilla yogurt, regular (Greek yogurt can be too thick)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup, or honey
Instructions
Make the Fruit Salad:
- Place the strawberries, blueberries, kiwi, pineapple, and oranges in a large bowl. Toss gently to combine.
Make the Creamy Vanilla Yogurt Dressing:
- In a small bowl, stir together the yogurt, vanilla extract, and maple syrup (or honey) until well-combined.
- Spoon the fruit salad into individual serving bowls and drizzle each serving with some of the creamy yogurt dressing. Enjoy!
Notes
- If not serving immediately, cover and refrigerate the fruit salad and the dressing (separately) until ready to serve. Store leftovers separately in the fridge for 3 to 5 days.
- Fruit salad looks its best and has the best texture when it's freshly made. You can prep it ahead of time, but just know that the longer the chopped fruit sits, the more it will soften, release some of its liquid, and lose its vibrant color.
- The quality of your fruit will make or break your fruit salad. Make sure it is fresh and perfectly ripe. You don't want a bowl of super sour fruit.
- After washing your fruit, be sure to dry it as best as you can so your salad isn't watery (excess water will also cause the fruit to degrade faster).
- This recipe has my favorite combination of fruits, but the great thing about a fruit salad is you can add whatever fruits you like best.
- If adding fruits that will brown once sliced, toss them with citrus juice (lemon, lime, orange, etc.) before adding to the salad to help prevent browning.
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