No questions asked, I’m a fruit junkie (fresh fruit is hands down the best).  I’ve tried domestic fruits and exotic fruits, and I don’t recall ever disliking any of them.  One of my favorite treats is relaxing on the couch and eating a big bowl of fresh fruit.  This fruit salad recipe is simple to make, easy to modify, and tastes delicious.  The best part about it, is that there’s no right or wrong way to make it. Here’s how to create it:

What you’ll need
Sharp knife
Cutting board
Bowl for the salad
Fruit (preferably fresh)
Yogurt (at least 8 oz. for one person, 16+ oz. for more)

The short of it
Cut the fruit up into a bowl. Add the yogurt, stir together. Enjoy.

The long of it

• Decide which fruits you want to include in the salad. My personal favorites in this fruit salad are strawberries, gala apples, peaches (not canned), grapes, mandarin oranges, and mangos.
• If you’re making some just for yourself, only buy 1 item or bundle (for strawberries and grapes) of each of the fruits, otherwise you’ll be left with a large bowl of leftovers. If you’re making this salad for multiple people, add more fruit. If you make too much fruit salad, don’t worry, it stores well for 2 days in the fridge.
• Cut the fruit into bite size chunks and place it in the bowl. This recipe is based off of appetite not direct measurements, so cut as much fruit as your appetite demands.
• Once the fruit is in the bowl, start adding the yogurt. Add as much yogurt as you want, seriously. You won’t hurt the salad. My favorite yogurt flavors in this fruit salad are strawberry and vanilla.
• You can eat the salad immediately (as I’ve done many times) or you can chill it for an hour in the refrigerator before serving.

After having made this numerous times, I’ve learned the following tricks:

• Kiwi fruits are excellent, but tend to add a slight bitter taste when mixed with the yogurt.
• Bananas are also delicious in this fruit salad, but won’t hold up if you store it.
• Raspberries and smaller berries are also good editions, but mush up when the salad is stirred. (In cases like this, it’s the flavor that counts, right?)
• If you’re going to chill the salad and add bananas, chill the entire fruit salad first, and then add the bananas right before serving, or your bananas may turn brown.

The next time you need to change up your salad routine, try using lime and salt as the dressing. A while back I lived in Guatemala and was introduced to new foods and cooking methods—mostly dealing with black beans and rice. Something I found interesting about the food down there is that it was mainly meant to fill you up, not to delight your taste buds; however, there were a few exceptions. The way the Guatemalans made their green salads was one of them. As with most green salads, fresh vegetables are the way to go.

Now that I’ve built it up, I’ll simply say, there’s not much difference between the way Guatemalans build their green salads and they way Americans build theirs. It’s the salad dressing that makes the difference. The Guatemalans use a lot of fresh lime in their cooking, and I was surprised one day when they served me a green salad with no salad dressing – at least that’s what it looked like at first glance. The truth was, they had squirted fresh lime over the top of it and then sprinkled salt over the top. My first thought? Bizarre!

Since then, I’ve done a lot of experimenting with green salads and lime. I can tell you that I love the combination, and it tastes great with almost every green salad out there. The exception has been when I’ve added fruits such as fresh peaches or kiwi. Lime and those two fruits don’t mix well for me. The fresh lime does work with grapes, apples, strawberries, and other fresh fruits and berries though. Squeezing lime and sprinkling salt also works with ingredient-rich green salads such as those mixed with meats, cheeses, and eggs.

I recommend trying your green salad with a smaller amount of lime and salt at first… if you’re not used to the flavor of lime, it may be a little different. And as they say in Guatemala, buen provecho!