Steal the show on patriotic holidays with this delicious fresh fruit salad! Featuring strawberries, cherries, watermelon, blueberries and jicama served with a refreshing mint lime dressing, this easy red white and blue salad recipe is perfect for Memorial Day weekend, the fourth of July or Labor Day.
Summer picnics and cookouts are the best way to entertain a crowd. Eating outside on a sunny day gives a casual and relaxing vibe that is just so unique. The food is relatively simple yet delicious, and you can almost always count on enjoying some refreshing fruit.
But fruit salads are often always the same - someone typically just throws together a few different types of fruit in a bowl and calls it a day.
Let's spruce things up (without much extra effort) with this patriotic summer fruit salad! Simply grab a star-shaped cookie cutter, prepare a light fruit salad dressing and all of a sudden your standard fruit salad becomes a huge hit!
This easy side dish is loaded with juicy watermelon, tart cherries, sweet strawberries, plump blueberries and slightly crunchy jicama stars. I then dressed it with a lime, mint and maple syrup sauce that takes it over the top in terms of deliciousness. The sauce reminds me of a sweet and tangy mojito - it is so fun and refreshing and complements the salad so well!
Ingredients
This recipe uses simple ingredients and fruits can easily be interchanged depending on what you have on hand. See the recipe card at the bottom of the post for quantities.
The Fruit
- Red fruit: fresh strawberries, cherries and watermelon (other options are red grapes or raspberries).
- White fruit: jicama (other options are crisp apples (skin removed), bananas or white peaches).
- Blue fruit: fresh blueberries (the obvious choice!).
The Dressing
- Lime juice
- Fresh mint
- Maple syrup
I recommend pouring the dressing overtop the fruit salad just before serving so it doesn't get soggy.
How to Make this Red, White and Blue Fruit Salad
- In a large bowl, gently toss to combine the strawberries, cherries, watermelon and blueberries.
- To make the white jicama stars, use a small star cookie cutter and cut through the white flesh of the jicama (not the skin). Place the stars overtop the salad.
- To make the dressing, add the lime juice, mint and 1 tablespoon of maple syrup to a mini food processor or blender and puree until well combined. Taste and adjust the sweetness if desired by adding more maple syrup.
- Just before serving, pour half the dressing overtop the salad and gently toss. Taste and add more dressing if desired. Garnish with fresh mint leaves.
- Enjoy immediately.
Get Creative!
Feel free to add other fresh berries or your favorite fruit to make this delicious salad your own. This is a forgiving recipe and one that you can really have fun with. Pomegranate seeds make for a nice addition as well with its beautiful red color!
For more star shapes, you can also use the cookie cutters on the watermelon chunks. They come in different sizes so that can add more fun variety as well!
I hope this post inspires the overall concept for you. This really is the perfect patriotic dessert for your next July 4th picnic!
This red, white and blue fruit salad is vegan, paleo, dairy-free, grain-free, soy-free, refined sugar-free, nut-free and gluten-free which makes it wonderful for serving to anyone with food allergies or food sensitivities.
If you give this recipe a try, please let me know! Leave a comment below and tag a photo @eatingbyelaine so I can see your creations!
For more red, white and blue recipes, check out my red, white and blue smoothie and red, white and blue popsicles!
More Vegan Recipes for Summer Barbecues
- Grilled Sweet Potato Fries
- Mediterranean Pasta Salad
- Tzatziki Potato Salad
- Garlic Cilantro Lime Coleslaw
- Mexican Quinoa Salad
- Grilled Avocados Stuffed with Quinoa Mango Salad
- Avocado Cilantro Jalapeno Veggie Burgers
- Easy No-Churn Blender Vanilla Ice Cream
- Fresh Squeezed Lemonade
Red, White and Blue Fruit Salad
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 6-8
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Steal the show on patriotic holidays with this delicious fresh fruit salad! Featuring strawberries, cherries, watermelon, blueberries and jicama served with a refreshing mint lime dressing, this easy red white and blue salad recipe is perfect for Memorial Day weekend, the fourth of July or Labor Day.
Ingredients
For the fruit salad
- 6 ounces strawberries, hulled and halved or quartered
- 2 cups cherries, stems and pits removed, halved (or substitute raspberries)
- ½ mini seedless watermelon, cubed
- 1 pint blueberries
- 4 white peaches (peeled and slliced) or 1 pound jicama, cut into ¼ inch rounds
For the sauce
- 2 limes, juiced
- 1 large handful fresh mint leaves (plus more for garnish)
- 1-2 tablespoons maple syrup (depending on desired level of sweetness)
Instructions
- In a large serving bowl, gently toss to combine the strawberries, cherries (or raspberries), watermelon and blueberries.
- To make the white jicama stars, use vegetable cutters in the shape of a star and cut through the white flesh of the jicama (not the skin). Place the stars overtop the salad. You can also use white peaches here.
- To make the sauce, add the lime juice, mint and 1 tablespoon of maple syrup to a mini food processor (or blender) and puree until well combined. Taste and adjust the sweetness if desired by adding more maple syrup.
- Just before serving, pour half the sauce overtop the salad and gently toss. Taste and add more sauce if desired. Garnish with fresh mint leaves. Enjoy immediately.
- Prep Time: 15
- Category: Side Dish
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