Honey Lime Fruit Salad (The BEST!)

Honey Lime Fruit Salad – My FAVORITE fruit salad. This has been a go-to for years, and it’s never failed to be a hit. Perfect for potlucks, barbecues, family parties, weeknights, and more.

Do you have a signature recipe? I have an aunt who hosts all kinds of family get togethers, wedding and baby showers, etc. and there are a few things I REALLY look forward to when I’m there. She has a few salads and dishes that come out frequently, and I can’t get enough of them. I look forward to them, crave them, and think about them later.

I don’t think I have a signature dish or recipe, but this salad is something I almost always make when I’m bringing dinner to a friend, or I’m going to a favorite things party, or a potluck, or a picnic. It’s the one I make when I need something that’ll please kids and adults, that works for all kinds of different diets, and that feels fresh and colorful.

Honey Lime Fruit Salad is ALL the things–colorful, flavorful, fresh, delicious, sweet, tangy, and gorgeous.

I find a lot of fruit salads are mostly a jumble of flavors and textures that don’t always go together and don’t really highlight any of the components’ best features. This salad, with the honey lime dressing, magically brings everything together in a really cohesive way. The flavors blend, the textures are similar enough to really work well together, and the honey and lime really add a lot of punch.

AND IT COULDN’T BE EASIER.

Here’s all you need for this easy honey lime fruit salad recipe…

HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE HONEY LIME FRUIT SALAD:

• Green Grapes. One of the first things that made me fall in love with this honey lime fruit salad was the mix of colors. Keeping the number of fruits to a minimum (3, in this case) allows the flavors and colors to really shine. Green grapes start the salad off with a fresh pop of green that’s lovely. Feel free to halve the grapes if they’re large!
• Sliced Strawberries. Next up is a beautiful red from fresh strawberries. I usually quarter mine so they’re easy for my little ones to eat, but you can halve them or simply cut into slices if you prefer!
• Blueberries. Our last color comes from fresh blueberries. These little lovelies add the prettiest blue to balance the color palette, and the tangy-sweet flavor is gorgeous with the honey-lime dressing. Speaking of which…
• Lime Zest + Lime Juice. For our honey lime fruit salad recipe, you’ll double-up on the lime by using both fresh lime zest (which contains lime oil!) and fresh lime juice. This isn’t the time for bottled lime juice. I promise, you’ll notice a BIG difference.
• Honey. Then, you’ll just add some honey. A little goes quite a long way. The honey softens the fruit, which releases some of the natural juices and creates a lovely cohesive honey-lime dressing that ties the whole fruit salad together. SO GOOD!

MIX IT UP! TRY ONE OF THESE VARIATIONS ON OUR HONEY LIME FRUIT SALAD RECIPE:

1. ADD FRESH MINT! My favorite variation on our honey lime fruit salad recipe is to add a little fresh mint to the salad. Lime + mint are the best of friends, and they work some serious magic together in honey lime fruit salad. A little goes a long way, so just 1-2 Tbsp. is plenty. (Start small + add from there!)
2. MIX UP THE FRUIT. If you’d like to play with the colors in this easy fruit salad recipe, feel free to mix up the fruit a bit, as I do in this Rainbow Fruit Salad or our Peach Berry Fruit Salad. The fruit combinations in those salads can be lovely with this honey lime dressing, too! This dressing is delicious on kiwi, raspberries, blackberries, peaches, mangoes, pineapple, red grapes, mandarin oranges, and so much more.
3. MAKE IT VEGAN. You can absolutely make our honey lime fruit salad vegan by using apple honey or swapping agave in for the honey.

FAQ + TIPS AND TRICKS FOR THE BEST HONEY LIME FRUIT SALAD:

A NOTE ON PREPPING YOUR FRUIT. The three fruits in this salad have different sizes, which makes things more visually interesting, but can sometimes make it feel like there’s actually more of the small fruit than the large fruit. Feel free to play with the ratios a bit (adding more grapes or strawberries if you like), or simply slice your fruit smaller to make the sizes more even. (i.e. halve or quarter the grapes, quarter or slice the berries, etc. so they’re close to the size of the blueberries.)

CAN I MAKE FRUIT SALAD AHEAD OF TIME? Because fruit salad starts to break down once its dressed, I recommend only making it a *tiny* bit (maaaaybe 15-60 minutes ahead of time) so that it can be cold, but I often make it right before serving. The longer it sits, the more the honey lime sauce will macerate the berries (help them release their sugars and soften), so it will get a little bit more syrupy and soft as time goes on. But you can absolutely whisk up the dressing in advance & store it separately from the washed, prepped fruit then assemble it right before serving.

HOW LONG WILL HONEY LIME FRUIT SALAD STAY FRESH? Since it is macerating and getting softer, I tend to eat it within 24-48 hours, tops. I often toss the leftovers into a blender with a cup of ice and puree them as a slushy smoothie. Otherwise I just pour the puree into popsicles molds and freeze them. It makes amazing popsicles!

HOW MUCH DOES THIS RECIPE MAKE? You can make this fresh fruit salad recipe as big or small as you want. If you’re serving a crowd, add a giant bowl of fruit and double the sauce. Just making it for 1-2? Skip the lime zest (or just use a tiny bit) and only squeeze a little lime juice with a drizzle of honey. You can scale it however you need to!

Print