Winter Fruit Salad With Citrus Dressing

This easy winter fruit salad recipe combines colorful seasonal winter fruits and a sweet orange dressing to add bright, fresh flavor to your holiday table! It’s a delicious, easy side dish for a holiday breakfast or dinner. (Plus, it’s naturally Paleo, Vegan & Gluten-Free!)

In the summer, we have an ABUNDANCE of fun, fresh fruit (I’m looking at you Peach Fruit Salad, Cherry Berry Fruit Salad, and Watermelon Fruit Salad!), but in the winter, our choices are a bit more limited.

This winter fruit salad recipe combines the best of the winter seasonal fruits with a simple orange dressing to add a pop of color and fresh, vibrant flavors to your holiday dinner or holiday brunch.

The colorful fruit and the sweet, tangy taste of the dressing make this fresh fruit salad the perfect side dish for a holiday meal. It’s bright, flavorful, and EASY, which frees up energy for some of the more complicated recipes you might be making this time of year (like a roast or turkey at dinner, or cinnamon rolls or waffles at fun holiday brunch).

And, best of all? This easy fruit salad starts with simple ingredients…

Start With Simple Ingredients

So what exactly are the in-season fruits you’ll need for a winter fruit salad? Let’s take a look:

• APPLES. Thank goodness apples make it through the winter so well! They add such brightness and crispness to this winter fruit salad. My favorite are Honeycrisp apples because they’re slower to brown (Seriously! It’s like magic!), have a juicy, crisp texture, and strike the perfect balance between sweet and tart. (Fuji, Envy, and Pink Lady would be my runners-up)
• CLEMENTINES OR ORANGES. Winter is prime citrus season, so we’re bringing that citrus fruits element in through oranges! I love to use clementine oranges or mandarins (since we ALWAYS have them on hand in the winter), but you can also use supremed oranges (with their peels + pith removed) if that’s easier for you. See the next section for tips on how to prep oranges if you go that route!
• SLICED KIWI. Ripe kiwis make such a pretty addition to this winter fruit salad. I love how their sweet-tart flavor brings out the citrus and brightens up the apples. If you can’t do kiwi (for allergies or preference), I recommend using still-firm (but not hard!) pears instead.
• POMEGRANATE SEEDS. Pomegranates are basically nature’s jewels. These pretty little seeds (called “pomegranate arils”) look like bright red jewels in any setting, and they’re especially pretty in this vibrant winter fruit salad. I love how pretty they look and how lovely they taste in this salad!
• A SIMPLE ORANGE DRESSING. The fruit salad orange dressing is made from just 2 ingredients: orange juice and honey or agave. The citrus does double duty, keeping the fruit from browning and adding some brightness and tang. The honey helps soften the fruit slightly and pull all the flavors together, mediating any tartness going on in your fruit. It’s a really lovely combination! (See the FAQ below if you want to change things up!)

How To Make Winter Fruit Salad, Step By Step

As always, you can find the full recipe with ingredient amounts, detailed instructions, and tips in the recipe card below.

1. Combine Fruit. In a large bowl, combine apples, clementines, kiwi, and pomegranate seeds.
2. Mix Dressing. In a small bowl, combine orange juice and honey or agave.
3. Gently Combine. Drizzle the fruit with your dressing and gently stir to combine, until the fruit is evenly coated in the citrus dressing. Taste and add additional sweetener, or more dressing, as desired. (Keep in mind that as the salad sits, the fruit salad will naturally get juicier as the dressing softens the fruit.)
4. Serve & Store. If possible, allow the fruit salad to chill 15-30 minutes before serving (up to 1-2 hours in advance for best texture). Enjoy, then store leftover fruit salad in an airtight container in the fridge 2-3 days. Fruit salad will continue to soften with time.

FAQ + Tips For The Best Winter Fruit Salad

CAN I MAKE WINTER FRUIT SALAD IN ADVANCE? Yes! Thanks to the citrus acidity of the orange juice dressing, this winter fruit salad won’t brown quickly and can be prepared several hours in advance. I actually prefer it this way, since it gives the flavors a chance to mingle.

TIP: USE A GOOD, SHARP KNIFE. A good, sharp knife will make preparing your fruit easy and give you the prettiest results. This super-sharp knife is around $10 and works SO WELL. It’s what I use for almost everything!

HOW LONG WILL THIS WINTER FRUIT SALAD KEEP? It’ll easily last well for 2-3 days in the fridge, though once you get to that 3 day mark, the fruit will have broken down a bit. (Sometimes I puree the leftovers and sip them as a smoothie!)

More Holiday Brunch Recipes To Try

Red & Green Christmas Fruit Salad

Gluten-Free Gingerbread Waffles

Easy BLT Quiche

Gluten-Free French Toast Casserole

Winter Fruit Salad with Fresh Citrus Dressing

5 from 1 vote

Emily Dixon, One Lovely Life

With colorful fruit & fresh citrus dressing, this easy Winter Fruit Salad is the perfect side dish for a holiday dinner or brunch! (Naturally gluten-free, paleo & vegan-friendly)

Prep Time: 25 minutes minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes minutes

Print Pin Rate

Servings: 6 cups salad (8 servings)

Calories: 124kcal

Ingredients

• 2 apples sliced, then cut into small pieces (2-21/2 cups)
• 2 cups clementine slices or supremed oranges
• 2 cups sliced kiwi halved lengthwise, then sliced–about 5-6 kiwi
• 1 1/2-2 cups pomegranate arils from 1 pomegranate
• 4-5 Tablespoons orange juice high quality or fresh-squeezed
• 2-3 Tablespoons honey or agave use agave for vegan

Instructions

• Combine Fruit. In a large bowl, combine apples, clementines, kiwi, and pomegranate seeds.
• Mix Dressing. In a small bowl, combine orange juice and honey or agave.
• Gently Combine. Drizzle the fruit with your dressing and gently stir to combine, until the fruit is evenly coated in the citrus dressing. Taste and add additional sweetener, or more dressing, as desired. (Keep in mind that as the salad sits, the fruit salad will naturally get juicier as the dressing softens the fruit.)
• Serve & Store. If possible, allow the fruit salad to chill 15-30 minutes before serving (up to 1-2 hours in advance for best texture). Enjoy, then store leftover fruit salad in an airtight container in the fridge 2-3 days. Fruit salad will continue to soften with time.

Notes

Variations To Try:

• Swap in a honey lime dressing (like this one) instead of the orange dressing.
• Add a little fresh mint. I love how pretty a little mint can look in fruit salad! 1 Tbsp fresh mint will be plenty for a salad this size, but you can go up to 2 Tbsp if you really love it.
• Try some vanilla! Add a few drops of vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste (which has flecks of vanilla bean!) to the dressing.
• Add 1/2 teaspoon of poppy seeds for an orange poppyseed dressing effect.
• Play with the fruit! Feel free to add some of your favorite fruits, like pineapple, ripe pears, or grapes, which also do well in the cold winter months. Or, mix up the colors & varieties of the fruit that’s already in the salad! Try regular oranges, blood oranges, golden kiwi, or different colors of apples! 

Video

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Fruit Salad with Citrus Dressing, Fruit Salad with Orange Dressing, Winter Fruit Salad

Nutrition

Serving: 0.75(3/4) cup salad | Calories: 124kcal | Carbohydrates: 30.5g | Protein: 1.8g | Fat: 0.9g | Saturated Fat: 0.1g | Sodium: 3.7mg | Potassium: 371.6mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 22.6g | Vitamin C: 76.2mg | Calcium: 40.9mg

Nutrition facts are an estimate only and will vary based on brands and amounts used.

Find it Online:

https://www.onelovelylife.com/winter-fruit-salad/

Originally posted December 2019. Fully updated with new photos, video, and updated notes November 2024.