My easy Thanksgiving fruit salad is the perfect side dish for Thanksgiving! A mix of seasonal fruit tossed in a light citrus honey dressing make this recipe a healthy addition to your holiday table.
Looking for more holiday recipes? Try my Thanksgiving-ready Fall Charcuterie Board, my Wendy's Apple Pecan Salad copycat that is my go-to Thanksgiving salad, or my grandmama's candied sweet potatoes.
My Favorite Fruit Salad makes the Perfect Thanksgiving Side!
November has come in hot y'all, and I am in the middle of setting up this year's Thanksgiving Day extravaganza!
My family's thanksgiving dinner never lacks in flavor or side dishes and I'm so excited to share all of my favorites with you, including this delicious autumn fruit salad. It's the easiest thing you'll make on your holiday menu and the perfect addition to your sides or dessert table!
It's absolutely gorgeous, full of seasonal fresh fruit like crisp apples and pears, kiwis, and dried cranberries, tart and juicy pomegranate seeds, yummy praline pecans for a little bit of added crunch, all tossed in yummy honey dressing with warm spices.
Make this thanksgiving fruit salad at brunch alongside apple pie stuffed cinnamon rolls, as part of a cute little breakfast charcuterie board, or serve it with the Thanksgiving meal!
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Jump to:
- My Favorite Fruit Salad makes the Perfect Thanksgiving Side!
- Why This Thanksgiving Fruit Salad Recipe is So Good
- Equipment
- Ingredients
- How to Make this Festive Thanksgiving Fruit Salad Recipe with Honey Dressing
- Variations and Substitutions
- Pro Tips
- What to Serve with Thanksgiving Fruit Salad
- Storage
- FAQs
- More Thanksgiving Recipes
- Thanksgiving Fruit Salad
Why This Thanksgiving Fruit Salad Recipe is So Good
- A Perfect Thanksgiving Side Dish - this is nothing but fresh seasonal fruit, it's a perfect refresher between plates of rich and delicious creamy, crispy, cheesy goodness.
- Kid-Approved - kids love fruit, no question! The littles always get excited for a colorful fruit salad that they can feed themselves with little fingers.
- So Versatile - you can add marshmallows and whipped cream like an autumn ambrosia, change up the fruits, or use canned fruit to make this recipe even faster and easier.
Equipment
- A good Cutting Board
- A beautiful Large Bowl for serving
Ingredients
Full ingredients, measurements, and printable instructions are in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
- Apples - We want crisp apples with great flavor! I used a mix of gala and granny smith apples.
- Pears - Juicy, sweet bartlett pears or d'anjou pears work perfectly. You want ones that aren't too soft, no bruising, and
- Clementine Oranges - these small, juicy little oranges are in season, super sweet, and the perfect size for our salad.
- Grapes - green grapes, red grapes throw them right in!
- Kiwis - yes, they are in season, honey! I found some golden ones at my local grocery store and I couldn't help myself. They're sweet and super juicy and bring more color to our holiday fruit salad.
- Dried Cranberries - fresh cranberries would be so tart, and are really best for other application
- Pomegranate Arils - instead of harvesting the seeds yourself, see if you can find it harvested
- Figs - our fig trees are going crazy right now, so I love using them whenever I can!
- Praline Pecans - use whatever nut you like, but these sweet and crunchy pecans really add texture and a nutty flavor!
Citrus Honey Dressing
- Orange Juice - this does double duty; the juice will keep the fruit fresh and prevent the fruit from browning while it also adds tangy flavor to keep the fruit salad from getting too sweet.
- Pumpkin Pie Spice, Apple Pie Spice, or Chai Spices - is it autumn without warm spices, friend? I had this yummy chai blend in my pantry, it was begging to be used in this recipe.
- Honey - for the best flavor, use a raw honey!
- Vanilla Paste - you can use vanilla extract, but a touch of vanilla paste with those yummy vanilla seeds just elevates this.
- Poppy Seeds - these are optional, not everyone loves poppy seeds, I know. They add more texture and a little nuttiness.
How to Make this Festive Thanksgiving Fruit Salad Recipe with Honey Dressing
Step 1 | Make the dressing by whisking the apple pie spice and honey together with the orange juice, vanilla paste, and poppy seeds in a small bowl.
Step 2 | Chop the fruit on a cutting board, then add the chopped fruit to a large bowl. Pour the dressing over the fruit, toss the fruit salad with salad tossers, and serve!
Variations and Substitutions
- Change up the dressing - any sweet and tangy juice -- orange juice or pineapple juice, for example -- can work in our citrus honey dressing.
- Canned fruits for less prep - use maraschino cherries, drained mandarin oranges, canned pears, whatever makes your Thanksgiving day run smoothly and stress-free!
Pro Tips
- Make this Salad Ahead of Time - Soak the chopped pears and apples in orange juice or pineapple juice to prevent them from turning brown. That way you can prep the salad a few hours ahead of dinner! This article on preventing fruit from browning talks about more ways to help keep those fruits fresh.
- Add the nuts and dressing right before serving so the nuts stay crunchy and the fruit don't soak in the dressing completely.
What to Serve with Thanksgiving Fruit Salad
If you're serving this for Thanksgiving, I have a few ideas:
This year I'm serving up a severely juicy Cajun spiced turkey breast along with our usual spatchcocked turkey. We have to have extra turkey breast, it was highly requested!
We always need potatoes during the holidays so serve up some luxurious butter whipped mashed potatoes, rosemary garlic roasted potatoes, or crispy smashed potatoes.
And with it, an easy turkey neck gravy alongside some homemade Grand Marnier cranberry sauce.
Storage
Keep the fruit salad in an airtight container overnight at best. The fresh fruit will start to change textures after that.
FAQs
If you're preparing the fruit salad ahead of time, store the dressing and nuts separately and toss them in right before serving.
You absolutely can! Soak the fruit in orange juice or pineapple juice to prevent them from turning brown, then keep the fruit salad in an airtight container. Make the dressing the next day, then toss the dressing and pecans in before serving.
More Thanksgiving Recipes
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Thanksgiving Fruit Salad
Ingredients
Citrus Honey Dressing
- ¼ cup honey
- 2 teaspoon chai spice or pumpkin pie spice
- ¼ cup orange juice
- ½ teaspoon vanilla paste
- ¼ teaspoon poppy seeds, optional
Fresh Fruit Salad
- 1 Gala or Honeycrisp apple, cored and diced
- 1 Granny Smith apple, cored and diced
- ½ cup dried cranberries
- ½ cup pomegranate arils
- 3 kiwis, peeled and sliced
- 8 ounces ripe figs, halved
- 2 Bartlett or D'Anjou pears, cored and diced
- 4 clementines, peeled and separated
- 3 cups grapes
- ½ cup praline pecans, chopped
Instructions
- Make the Dressing
- In a small bowl, whisk together the ¼ cup raw honey, 2 teaspoon spice blend, the orange juice, vanilla bean paste, and poppy seeds until well combined. Set aside.
- Make the Fruit Salad
- Put the diced apples, dried cranberries, pomegranate arils, sliced kiwis, halved figs, diced pears, clementine slices and grapes into a large serving bowl.
- Pour the citrus honey dressing over the fruit, then sprinkle in the praline pecans. Toss with salad spoons and serve.
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