Fruit salad is one of my favorite things to make – it can be a snack, a dessert, even breakfast. What I love about this recipe is the beautiful sauce that the vanilla pudding makes when mixed with fruit juice. It takes a regular bowl of fruit salad and elevates it to fabulous!
The vanilla pudding adds just enough thickness to the fruit juice to coat each piece of fruit and creates a bit of sauce that holds all the fruit flavors. This does not last long in our house. My daughter loves it with Greek yogurt and a little granola in the morning, my son and husband love it on ice cream, angel food cake, or pound cake, and I love the simplicity of putting some in a bowl and topping it with a little whipped cream.
The lemon zest adds a brightness in flavor that is perfect – I think lemon is key in this recipe, but lime zest also works.
This recipe is always a hit – potlucks, picnics, dinner parties … everyone loves it!
Enjoy!
Ingredients
2 cups strawberries sliced
2 cans sliced peaches (15 oz. each) – one can reserve the juices, the other one drained
1 can mandarin orange segments (11 oz.) – drained
1 can pineapple chunks (15 oz.) – drained
2 bananas sliced
1 green or red apple – cored and diced
1 ½ cups blueberries – washed and drained
1 ½ cups purple grapes – washed and cut in half
1 lemon
3 tablespoons instant vanilla pudding mix (regular or sugar free)
Directions
Zest the lemon.
Drain one of the cans of peaches and capture the juices into a large bowl. Place the peaches in a separate bowl.
Stir the 3 Tbsp. vanilla pudding mix into the juice.
Drain remaining can of peaches, mandarin oranges, and pineapple chunks. (The juice is not necessary from these other canned fruits.)
Add all fruit and lime zest to the pudding mixture. Gently stir to combine.
Chill at least 30 minutes before serving.
Notes
• Feel free to substitute fruits: I love adding raspberries and blackberries when they are in season! Also, add a bit of coconut flakes if you like.
• Use fresh fruit over canned if you have it on hand. Just make sure that you reserve the juices from one can of fruit to mix with pudding. It does not have to be peaches if you are using fresh peaches.
• If using fresh peaches, peel them, and toss with a small amount of lemon juice or lime juice to prevent them from turning brown.
• Serving Ideas: Serve in a bowl and top with Cool Whip or whipped cream; spoon over angel food cake, pound cake, or serve over ice cream.
• If you would like extra sauce to drizzle (it soaks into angel food cake beautifully), reserve juice from another can of fruit and mix in 3 Tbsp. vanilla pudding mix and stir well.
• Lime zest may be substituted for lemon zest. Mixing the two together adds a lovely citrus flavor.
• If making ahead of time, wait to add the bananas so they do not turn brown or get mushy.
• Vanilla pudding is the standard, but other flavors will work as well. I have used banana pudding and it was wonderful.