Winter Fruit Salad with Lemon Poppyseed Dressing

A handful of winter fruits turn in to an outrageously good fruit salad.  Top it with a sweet/tart lemon poppyseed dressing and you'll be craving this dish all winter long!

Winter Fruit Salad with Lemon Poppyseed Dressing 

Fruit is essential in our house, and we eat a ton of it.  We are in heaven during the spring and summer months due to the abundance of fresh fruit, but come wintertime we feel a little cheated.  That is until I came across this recipe for a winter fruit salad.  The salad has a combination of pears, apples, tangerines, bananas, kiwis, and dried cranberries.  If that isn't good enough it is topped with this amazing dressing that includes lemon juice, honey, oil, and poppyseeds.  This salad is sooooo good that I've made it three times in that last 2 weeks!

This salad is perfect for breakfast, brunch, lunch, and snacks.  Because of the lemon in the dressing the apples and pears don't turn brown so this would be great for a picnic in the park. 

However you decide to serve it make sure to do it quickly.  If you love fruit, this is going to be a new favorite in your household too!

When do I serve fruit salad?

• Brunch or breakfast
• Snack time
• After school snack
• Dessert
• Lunch as a side dish
• Use this to top waffles for breakfast or dessert
• Top Greek Yogurt with a big scoop
• Top ice cream for dessert
• Perfect over pound cake or angel food cake

What Ingredients do I need?

• apples
• pears - we love D'Anjou
• kiwis
• bananas
• tangerines or mandarin oranges
• dried cranberries
• lemon
• poppyseeds
• honey
• canola oil

Substitutions and Variations

• add dried cherries instead of cranberries
• add pomegranate arils
• use fresh orange juice in the dressing instead of lemon
• any of the fruit may be left out
• substitute you favorite pear
• use a tart apple instead of a sweet one
• add grapefruit segments instead of tangerines
• add orange segments instead of tangerines
• add blood orange segments instead of tangerines
• swap out pineapple for any of the fruit

Kitchen Tips and Notes

• Double the recipe to serve a larger group
• This best eaten the same day however, the fruit salad will keep an extra day in the refrigerator but the bananas may tend to get a little mushy.
• The lemon juice in the dressing will keep the apples and pears from browning
• To make ahead prep the tangerines and kiwi, but I would cut the apple, pears, and banana pretty close to serving.

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Winter Fruit Salad with Lemon Poppyseed Dressing 

serves 4

Dressing

1 1/2 Tablespoons lemon juice

1 1/2 Tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon poppyseeds

3 Tablespoons canola oil

Pinch of sugar

Salad

1 Envy apple, cored and diced

1 D'Anjou pear, cored and diced

1 banana, sliced

2 kiwis, peeled and diced

2 tangerines, peeled and segmented

1/3 cup dried cranberries

To make the dressing: In a small bowl or jar whisk together lemon juice, honey, poppyseeds, sugar, and oil until well combined.

For the fruit salad: In a salad bowl toss together all of the fruit then pour just enough dressing over top to coat.  Start out with about 1/2 and add more if needed.  Toss to coat gently.  

Serve immediately for best results.

adapted from:  Cooking Classy