Zesting into Sunshine A Fruit Salad Actually Worth Making

by Hannah Wilson, intern

In a conscious effort to put some more freshness in our diets, I figured why not try a zesty fruit salad. Fruit salad is the perfect for the warmer weather, whether it’s for a weekday lunch or a weekend brunch. We tried this Jamie Deen recipe for Tropical Fruit Salad with honey and lime and thought we’d share this recipe! While I’m not the best in the kitchen, I gave it a go!

It’s a fairly easy recipe that will be sure to leave your taste buds satisfied! What you’ll need is:

¾ cup of sweetened coconut flakes
2 Tbs of local honey
2 Tbs of fresh mint, chiffonade
Zest and juice of one lime
2 kiwis, peeled and sliced
1 banana, peeled and sliced on a bias
1 small bunch of red grapes
1 mango, peeled, pit removed and cubed
½ large pineapple, peeled, cored and cubed

I started by zesting the lime, this was a new concept to me, but it’s all too simple. After washing the limes and grating them delicately you take the grated peel and voila! You’ve successfully zested. You’ll want to set this aside in a bowl. After the zest has been zested, you simply juice the lime.

After adding the local honey to the lime zest and juice, it’s time to chiffonade the mint. Chiffonade, as I have learned, is a fancy word for how one can prepare herbs or leafy vegetables by cutting them into long, thin strips. Once you add the mint to the honey, lime juice and lime zest, you whisk it all together.

This is about the time I started to preheat the oven to warm the coconut flakes, they’re relatively low maintenance in this recipe, and the toasting gave it a nice little crunch!

Next, we tackle the wide variety of tropical fruits. We have your kiwis, banana, grapes, mango and pineapple. Another life lesson learned, the directions for cutting a pineapple are on the pineapple itself, pretty innovative!

Now, you’re ready to mix it all together! I added the fruit into the freshly whisked ‘dressing’ if you will and to top it off I added the toasted coconut flakes! This recipe blended a lot of flavors and they each come through nicely when the fruit salad comes together. We loved it for an afternoon snack!