Tropical Fruit Salad with Agave-Lime Dressing
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This colorful tropical fruit salad with agave-lime dressing will transport you to the shores of a tropical destination. Healthy, refreshing, and easy to make, it’s the perfect choice for picnics and potlucks on hot summer days.
🥥 WHY YOU’LL LOVE THIS TROPICAL FRUIT SALAD
- You can find the tropical fruit at most markets during the spring and summer months. No looking around for international ingredients. Find the tastiest fruit at local farmer’s markets.
- It’s colorful, healthy, light and delicious. Most everyone loves refreshing cool fruit. Especially on a hot afternoon.
- You can prep salad several hours in advance by cutting up the fruit and storing them in separate containers in the fridge. When you’re ready to serve this tropical fruit salad, toss everything together in a large bowl. This will only take a few minutes.
- Come home with an empty dish, every time. Take it picnics, potlucks, backyard gatherings, and church socials. Watch it disappear. This tropical fruit salad is usually the first dish gone.
🛒 Ingredients
- Pineapple: If you’re in a hurry, or if pineapples are out of season, feel free to use canned pineapples instead fresh.
- Mangos: A delicious tropical fruit with a unique flavor profile. Many people describe the flavor asa fruity combination of peach, apple, pear, orange, banana and cantaloupe.
- Kiwi: Juicy and light, this tropical fruit has a lovely balance of sweet and sour with a hint of tang.
- Strawberries: When picked at the peak of ripeness, these heart-shaped red berries are sweet and tasty with a delicious aroma. They add both color and flavor to this tropical fruit salad.
- Blueberries: Add a wonderful texture to the tropical mixture. When bitten into, they give off a very light squirt of slightly-sweet juice.
- Banana: Peel and slice this ingredient at the very last moment, then add it to the salad. Sliced banana tends to brown very quickly.
- Unsweetened Coconut: Feel free to use wide-sliced or shredded. If you prefer a sweeter tropical fruit salad, use sweetened coconut.
- Lime Juice: A citrus juice with a tart acidic taste and just a hint of sweet.
- Light Agave Nectar: If you’re not familiar with agave nectar, you’re in for a real treat. It tastes similar to honey, but the flavor is more neutral and slightly less sweet. It’s perfect for making a light salad dressing that allows the natural flavor of each tropical fruit to shine through.
🍍 How to Cut a Pineapple FOR TROPICAL FRUIT SALAD
- STEP 1: On a cutting board, lay the pineapple on its side. With a large chef’s knife slice off the first 1/2 inch of the fruit to remove the remove the top and crown. Slice off the bottom end, removing 1/2″ to 3/4″.
- STEP 2: Stand the pineapple straight up on the cutting board. Cut it in half, slicing straight down the middle. The core is now visible.
- STEP 3: Start with one half of the pineapple. Line up your knife with the edge of the core and slice inward at a diagonal. Rotate the pineapple and slice along the other side of the core moving your knife down and inward. Repeat this process with the second half of the fruit.
- STEP 4: Cut each of the halves in half. Take each quarter of the fruit and slice it down toward the skin. Now it’s time to remove the prickly skin. Take the knife and cut off the rind.
📖 How to Make TROPICAL Fruit Salad
RECIPE PREP: Refrigerate all the fruit, except bananas, for at least 2 hours before assembling the salad. We want this dish to be cool and refreshing.
- STEP 1: Assemble the simple dressing: whisk together the agave nectar and freshly-squeezed lime juice. Set it aside.
- STEP 2: Slice the flesh of the pineapple into bite-size pieces. Remove the skin of the kiwi and slice it. Peel the mango. Slice the flesh of the fruit surrounding the core. Wash, hull and slice the strawberries.
- STEP 3: Wait until the very last minute to slice the bananas. Add them into the fruit salad until just before serving time. Bananas not only get soggy and brown very quickly, they also have a very strong distinct taste that can begin to permeate the rest of the fruit.
- STEP 4: Place the pineapple, kiwi, mangos, strawberries and blueberries into a mixing bowl. Drizzle the agave-lime dressing over the fruit. With clean hands or a spoon, gently mix the the fruit together. Garnish the tropical fruit salad with coconut.
👉🏻 ALLERGY AWARENESS: Some people may be allergic to coconut. So when serving this salad at a party, it’s best to leave the coconut out of the dish. Instead, place the coconut in a separate bowl as an optional garnish.
👩🏻🍳 RECIPE FAQ
These are the most commonly-asked questions for making a delicious tropical fruit salad and the most helpful answers for recipe success.
Yes. It can be prepped up to 24 hours in advance. Refrigerate the cut, sliced fruit (except the banana – which can get brown and soggy) in separate containers. When you’re ready to serve the salad, prep the dressing, slice the banana, then toss all the ingredients together.
If some of the fruit is too tart you can balance out the flavor by adding more sweetness. Drizzle in a bit more agave nectar, and garnish the dish with sweetened coconut.
🥗 MORE COOL SUMMER SALADS
Beat the heat with these cool and refreshing summer salads. Need to feed a crowd? Just double the recipe.
- Cucumber Salad
- Cold Spaghetti Salad
- Watermelon Arugula Salad
- Strawberry Spinach Salad
- Watergate Salad
- Chinese Chicken Salad
- Classic Macaroni Salad
RATE THIS RECIPE ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Flavor testers rated this the BEST tropical fruit salad. They loved the textures and flavors of this special combination of tropical fruit. They said the agave-lime dressing was a perfect finishing touch on this tasty summer salad.
If you agree this recipe’s a keeper, give it a 5-star rating in the comments. Then be a recipe hero. Share it with friends. 📌 Pin it to Pinterest.
Tropical Fruit Salad with Agave Lime Dressing
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 20 servings 1x
Description
This tropical fruit salad is healthy, refreshing and easy to make. It’s lightly drizzled with a delicious agave-lime dressing. Colorful and inviting, it’s perfect for picnics and potlucks.
Ingredients
- 1 medium pineapple, peeled, cored and cut into bite-sized cubes
- 3 mangos, peeled, cored and sliced
- 6 kiwi, peeled and sliced
- 1.25 pounds ripe strawberries, rinsed, hulled and sliced
- 6 ounces fresh blueberries
- 1 banana, sliced
- 1/4 cup light agave nectar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons lime juice, freshly squeezed
- Garnish: unsweetened wide-sliced coconut (or shredded coconut)
Instructions
RECIPE PREP: Refrigerate all the fruit, except bananas, for at least 2 hours before assembling the salad. When served, we want this dish to be cool and refreshing.
- Assemble the simple dressing: whisk together the agave nectar and freshly-squeezed lime juice. Set it aside.
- Slice the flesh of the pineapple into bite-size pieces. Remove the skin of the kiwi and slice it. Peel the mango. Slice the flesh of the fruit surrounding the core. Wash, hull and slice the strawberries.
- Wait until the very last minute to slice the bananas. Add them into the fruit salad until just before serving time. Bananas not only get soggy and brown very quickly, they also have a very strong distinct taste that can permeate the rest of the fruit.
- Place the pineapple, kiwi, mangos, strawberries and blueberries into a mixing bowl. Drizzle the agave-lime dressing over the fruit. With clean hands or a spoon, gently mix the the fruit together. Garnish the tropical fruit salad with coconut. Serve and enjoy.
Equipment
Buy Now → Notes
For a sweeter tropical fruit salad: Drizzle in more agave nectar. Use sweetened coconut instead of unsweetened coconut.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Category: Salad
- Method: By hand
- Cuisine: American, Mexican
tropical fruit salad 👉🏻 join the conversation
Are you excited to make this cool summer salad? What are your favorite tropical fruits? Share your thoughts on this recipe in the comments below.
So delicious! I love the hint of lime in the dressing, next time I’m going to have to make a bigger batch so that I will have leftovers for breakfast and desserts.
Looks so good. Saving this recipe!
xoxo,
Angelle
While reading your article, I felt hungry lol. I love salads and I make sure that I daily have them. Great article btw
My in-laws were visiting us recently and I made this fruit salad for our Sunday brunch – it was so delicious! The agave-lime dressing was spectacular and perfect with the fruit. I’ve bookmarked several of the beautiful salad recipes from your page to try very soon, they all look and sound fabulous!
Excellent choice, I love fruit salat and I promise you served in a coconut bowl makes it the best
This is so good and I am glad that you shared this.
Your recipes seem so healthy and colorful. I like the Tropical Salad bowl it reminds of a colorful tropical island
That looks so refreshing for summer!
Roxy, this tropical fruit salad is delicious! I know you’ll enjoy it.
These recipes are amazing, everything looks so good! I love the cute touch using a coconut shell as a bowl, so cute!
Gorgeous photos! I want a big bowl of this!
The agave lime dressing is the perfect touch to this beautiful fruit salad! I love it!
Bring on the fabulous fruit salads of the season! This one is wonderful — simple, colorful and flavorful! And those bowls! Swoon!
I always love pineapple. This looks so refreshing. Something I wanna try and serve to my boys
I love a great fruit salad and this dressing sounds so flavorful! How yummy!
this salad looks delish! In fact, the other salads on this page, look yummy! I have pinned a few!
Thanks!
Absolutely love this colorful and vitamin rich fruit salad. Perfect for summer!
This is the absolute perfect summer food! I can’ wait to try!
Oh this looks amazing! And so easy to make!
I love pineapple! This fruit salad looks great. Great presentation.
Hi Mallory! Pineapple really is the best, and this tropical fruit salad is so delicious. I know you’ll love it!
This looks amazing! Thank you for your post!
Hi Chimara, Thank you so much for liking our Tropical Fruit Salad. It is so good.
How cute is this!! While I make fruit salad a lot, I never make a dressing for it, so I’m loving this. Also loving the serving bowls!
Hi Sue, this salad is so cute, i agree. Im so glad you liked the tropical fruit salad recipe. It makes an awesome dish at a picnic.
Just in time for summer BBQ’s and parties! Love the simple dressing on this salad!!
Hi Nancy, I agree with you, perfect for BBQ’S. Thanks for stopping by and looking at the Tropical Fruit Salad.