Fresh melon, berries, cherries, peaches, etc served with a sweet poppy seed dressing and a sprinkling of toasted nuts, or a dollop of vanilla yogurt when plated and served immediately. At a recent formal breakfast we served a small scoop of homemade lemon sherbet atop fresh sliced fruit plate. I prefer no dressing if the occasion is a buffet offering as I think the melon makes the dressing watery.
Posts: 2132 | Location: Midwest | Registered: Nov 29, 2007
I use only fresh fruit that is season. In fact, I just bought a bunch of fresh fruit today to make a salad. I dress the slade with a sweetened whipped cream dressing to which I add some chopped fresh mint. If for some reason I need to make a fruit salad in the winter, I use a can of fruit cocktail as the base and then add whatever fresh fruit I can find, then dress the same as above. HYH, Mary
I sometimes make a salad of lettuce and sliced bananas and maybe apples with a "sauce" of lemon juice/honey/mayo and some celery salt. This is a favorite of ours. These are individual plate built salads
I absolutely, positively, like my fruit salad plain. I think dressing ruins the fresh juicy flavor of the fruit. One of my favorite fruit salad combinations is watermelon, cantaloupe and raspberries. Very yummy!
Definitely fruit salad plain, anything added seems to taste artificial compared to the sweet, innocent taste of fresh fruit. However, if I'm offering a fresh fruit platter, I like to serve it with a dipping sauce of strawberry yogurt, and not the low fat kind either, that seems to have an artificial flavor as well.
Posts: 536 | Location: East Coast of Sunny Florida | Registered: Aug 22, 2003
I guess here in the Midwest we use terms differently -- fruit salads DO have a dressing of sorts -- and often poppyseed -- but they are dressed -- "fruit salad" without dressing is just a bowl of fruit -- we don't call it a salad -- we may call it a "cup" (fruit cup).
Thought it interesting that so many consider fruit with no dressing a "salad"!
Growing up in a Latin family, with Spanish and French influences, we ate fruit the Mediterranean way, like Italians also, as dessert,not a side dish or "salad." It was always fresh, ripe and simply dressed, if necessary, with a squeeze of lemon juice and honey or a tiny bit of granulated sugar.
Generally, we ate fresh fruit that was in season, but we did love canned peaches as kids. Nowadays I might add balsamic vinegar to fresh strawberries for dessert, but that's about it.
I have found that Midwest and Southern cuisine often relies on creamy (mayo or whipped cream-based) dressings for fruit, which I never acquired a taste for.