Recipe: Tropical Fruit Salad With Creamy Lime Sauce
When you think about dessert, the first thing that pops into your mind is usually a baked good of some sort. Cakes, cookies, cupcakes, brownies, bars — I’ll stop a minute so you can wipe away the drool — but more often than not, what I really crave is a lime-laden fruit salad with a sweet sauce so smooth you’ll almost forget about those oven-based snacks!
This fruit salad is more than your usual gathering of fruits in a bowl. The lime and sweet cream topping for this recipe really brightens things up and adds a little zip where there usually isn’t any. Feel free to add whatever fruits you have in season or in abundance, just remember to keep things simple and when in doubt — you can never have too much lime!
This dish is best served for a crowd as there isn’t exactly an easy way to use a smaller amount of fruit. The serving suggestion below is an estimate since it will differ based on the size of the pieces of fruit that make it into your cart at the supermarket. Either way it’s sure to be enough for your next potluck or family get-together. If you have leftovers, freeze them on a sheet tray and break them into pieces, store in a large zip top bag and keep on hand in your freezer for summer smoothies!
Lime Laden Fruit Salad with Sweet Sauce
Makes about 4 quarts
Serves 16
Nutritional Info
Ingredients
- 1 large papaya, peeled, seeded and diced
- 1
pineapple, peeled, cored and diced
- 6 large bananas, peeled and sliced
- 1 cup marachino cherries, halved (optional)
- 5
limes, juiced
- Zest of 1 lime
- 1 cup shredded coconut
Sauce
- 4 cups crema (Mexican table cream — crème fraiche will also do)
- 3 tablespoons agave or honey
- Juice of 1 lime
- Zest of 1 lime
Instructions
Prep all of the fruit and as it is sliced, add it to the largest bowl you have.
Next, mix the juice into the fruit and stir to combine. Add the coconut and lime zest and stir once more to evenly coat fruit.
At this point the dish can either be served or stored in the refrigerator for up to a week — though we doubt it lasts that long.
To make the sauce for the top mix crema, agave, lime juice and lime zest until thoroughly mixed. Stir before serving each time mixture is removed from refrigerator, where it can be stored for up to 3 days.
Recipe Notes
You can skewer these chunks and serve the sauce as a dip at a party but we prefer to pour it on to let it gently cover each bite of fruit.
More Fruit Salads From The Kitchn:
• Try This! Sweet “Vinaigrette” for Fruit Salad
• Recipe: Lemon and Honey Fruit Salad
• Making Fruit Salad Fun: Chinese Fruit Forks
(Images: Sarah Rae Trover)