Dragon Fruit Salad

If your fruit salad is feeling kinda stale, here’s a winning strategy that will instantly jazz things up. First, pick up a fun fruit that you don’t buy all the time. Here, we’ve chosen dragon fruit, but go ahead and take a walk down the produce aisle and see what strikes your fancy. Next, grab a melon baller and scoop that fruit into bite-sized balls. The result is an exciting twist on that same-old, same-old fruit salad that will surprise your taste buds and looks gorgeous, too.

Also known as pitaya or strawberry pear, dragon fruit is named for its scaly, vibrant fuschia skin. It usually has white or deep red flesh with black seeds, although there’s also a less widely available variety with yellow flesh. The juicy edible flesh is soft and creamy with a delicate, mild sweet flavor often described as a cross between a pear and kiwi.

Dragon fruit is available at a growing number of grocers. It can be on the pricey side so it’s a good idea to pick the right one to add to your basket. Look for dragon fruit that’s plump with smooth, bright pink skin. Avoid fruit that have wrinkly, shriveled skin or drying scales (both indicators the fruit is a little past its prime), as well as those that are more pale green than pink, which are still underripe.