Fruit Salad

Fruit salad can be as simple as combining bite-sized pieces of an apple, an orange and a banana or tossing grapes and Mandarin orange segments together. If fruit salad is your contribution to a pot luck supper or picnic, you may want a recipe that serves 15-20 people and can be made a day ahead of the event. If that is the case, start with a base of pineapple and sugar boiled together briefly. When you add slices of fruits that brown easily after cutting to this warm mixture, it slows down the aging process for the sliced fruits. Here are two elegant fruit salads that serve 15-20 people.

Susie’s Fruit Salad

  • 1 flat can crushed pineapple (do not drain)
  • 1 Cup sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon flour
  • 3 bananas, slices
  • 2-3 peeled applies, slices
  • 3 oranges (navel), peeled and sectioned
  • 2-3 fresh peaches or 1 can Freeston peaches in lite syrup, drained
  • 2-3 fresh pears, or 1 can pears in lite syrup, drained
  • 1 box fresh strawberries, sliced in halves, or 10 oz frozen whole strawberries

Cook the pineapple and syrup/juice with the sugar and flour.  Heat until it thickens and remove from rangetop.  Slice the bananas and apples into the hot mixture.  (The pineapple sauce keeps the fruit from turning brown.)  Add rest of ingredients and chill well.  Best served the day it’s made, or next morning.  (leftovers are great for breakfast!)

Susie Anderson
Bellville ISD

Berries and Fruit Salad

  • 1 pound frozen pineapple chunks, thawed in refrigerator overnight
  • 1 pound frozen freestone peach slices
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons flour
  • 4 bananas, sliced into chunks
  • 2 Honeycrisp or other juicy red apple, leave skin on and cut to bite-sized pieces
  • 2 whole oranges, peeled and sections separated
  • 2 green pears, leave skin on and cut to bite-sized pieces
  • 1 box (4 cups) fresh strawberries, each sliced in half
  • 2 boxes (4 cups) fresh raspberries
  • 3 boxes (6 cups) fresh blackberries

Into a 3-quart sauce pan, empty the bag of frozen pineapple and including any juice or liquid.  Pour 1 cup sugar over the pineapple chunks and turn heat on high.  Stir to combine and add 2 Tablespoons of flour.  Heat, stirring constantly, for 3 minutes on high. Add thawed peach slices and any juice or liquid from the bag quickly, and keep stirring on high heat 2 more minutes.  By now, there should be a thick kind of “sauce” surrounding the fruit pieces.  Remove from heat and slice the bananas into the warm mixture.  Stir gently to coat bananas without breaking them into smaller pieces.  Allow mixture to cool to room temperature.  Wash rest of fruit and slice into bite sized pieces. Leave the raspberries and blackberries whole.  Pour the pineapple-peach-banana mixture into a large glass serving bowl. Gently fold the rest of the fruit into the pineapple mixture and chill overnight.  Best served at lunch the next day, but can be held until an evening meal.

Serves 15-20