Simple Fruit Salad


That's just cheating, that's what that is

The nice ladies who wrote the Desperation Dinners cookbook inspired this dish, although it's lifted more from their ideas about what makes a quick-and-easy fruit salad than their recipes. The plain and simple fact is that while I do not keep either plain yogurt or orange juice in the house on a constant basis (required for their "dressing") I do keep vanilla yogurt, canned pineapple and mandarin orange segments, and fresh grapes and one or two other kinds of fresh fruit. Since I can never get canned fruit drained well without squeezing it to death... Well, it just makes its own sauce.

Whenever I take this somewhere or serve it to someone for the first time, they always remark, "Wow, this is really good. What's in the sauce?" Then when I tell them they look seriously disgusted at how easy it is. I guess I'm cheating or something.

Simple Fruit Salad
inspired by Tutti-Fruiti Salad from Desperation Dinners

1 6-oz. can of Mandarin orange segments, or better yet Clementine segments if you can get them
1 can pineapple tidbits in their own juice (18 oz? 20? whatever)

Three of the following:
1 lb. fresh strawberries, cleaned and cut into bite-sized pieces
1 c. seedless grapes, halved
1/2 pint fresh blueberries, raspberries, or blackberries; halve 'em to make them go farther, they're expensive
1 apple, cored and cut into bite-sized pieces
1 banana, peeled and sliced

1/2 c. lowfat vanilla yogurt

Drain the canned fruit. Put in a big bowl. I pull the orange segments in half to check for stray seeds and make them go farther, but you don't have to. Prepare and add the three fresh fruits. Add the yogurt. Stir to combine.

The Camera Notes:
1. You can make this ahead of time, but if you're using raspberries or blackberries don't add them until you're ready to serve because they bleed. You can use frozen berries, but ditto, and let them thaw on a paper towel for a bit.
2. Hate mandarin oranges? Rather use fresh orange segments? Knock yourself out, just make them bite-sized and watch for seeds. Ditto on swapping out one canned fruit for another, or using more canned fruits and fewer fresh. The whole idea is just to get five different fruits in the bowl, and at least one of them should be canned so it's juicy enough even after it's drained to add a little fruit juice to the yogurt.
3. If you use blueberries or blackberries, and grapes or a Granny Smith apple, you can call this Rainbow Salad. If everything ends up being yellow, red, and orange you can call it Sunshine Salad.
4. Me, I think bananas get mushy in fruit salad. But it's up to you and what's in your kitchen.

Tags: fruit , recipe , food , salad

Posted: Tue - November 28, 2006 at 08:06 AM   Home         | | View Technorati reactions

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