Patriotic Red, White, & Blue Fruit Salad

red, white, and blue fruit salad with watermelon and peach stars and blueberries

Patriotic Red, White, & Blue Fruit Salad

This simple and easy red, white, and blue fruit salad with honey lime dressing is the best recipe for your summer holiday parties and picnics from Memorial Day and July 4th to Labor Day and even Flag Day. The star shaped peaches and watermelons are sure to be showstoppers at every meal!

5 from 8 votes

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Prep Time 15

Total Time 15

Course Salad

Cuisine American

Servings people

Calories 264 kcal

Equipment

Ingredients

For the salad:

1 small watermelon seedless if possible
3 medium peaches freestone - this is important!
16 ounces strawberries
16 ounces blueberries

For the dressing:

2 ½ tablespoons honey
1 tablespoons fresh mint chopped or snipped
1 small lime

Instructions

For the dressing:

Spritz a measuring cup or spoon with cooking spray, then use it to measure out the honey. 2½ tablespoons is a bit more than ⅛ cup. Place the honey in a small bowl.
Cut the lime in half and squeeze both halves into the bowl, being careful not to get any seeds in there. If seeds do get through, scoop them out with a spoon.
Add chopped mint and whisk until mixed well. Set dressing aside.

For the salad:

Wash the strawberries and remove the stems (discard). Then, slice or chop the strawberries into smaller pieces. I like to use an egg slicer for this because strawberries are slippery. Add the pieces to a large bowl.
Wash blueberries and add them to the bowl.
Slice the watermelon into big, round slices. Each slice should be about an inch or so thick. Lay them flat. (If the slices are too thin, they may break while you’re trying to cut the stars. But if they’re too thick you, may not be able to get the cookie cutter through.) Use the star shaped cookie cutter to cut the watermelon slices into star. Repeat until you’ve cut out as many stars as you can. Place the watermelon stars in the bowl.
Remove the skin from the peaches using your desired method (see notes section below). Cut each peach in half and twist the halves to release the pit. Then slice the peach into ½" slices and lay the slices out flat. Use your cookie cutter to cut stars out of the peach slices, the same way you did with the watermelon. Make as many stars as you can and place them in the bowl.

Assembling the salad:

Drizzle the honey lime dressing on top of the fruit. Use a spatula to carefully mix all the fruit around until evenly coated.
Garnish with lime zest and/or mint leaves.

Notes

Red, White, and Blue Fruit Salad is best eaten immediately but will keep in the fridge (covered) for up to 3 days.

Notes on ingredients:

Peeling peaches

Remove the skin from the peaches using your desired method (see notes section below). The two most reliable peeling methods are:

Use a serrated peeler to peel the skin as you would peel a potato.
Blanch and shock the peaches. This sounds crazy, but it is actually my preferred method as it doesn't involve holding a tender and juicy fruit in my hand while I attempt to peel it with a handheld peeler. Read more below.

Blanch and shock the peaches means that you cook them for a few seconds and then fish them out of the boiling water and plunge them immediately into ice water. To do this, you will slice a big X into the bottom of the peach, fully submerge it into a pot of boiling water for a full 30 seconds, and then dunk it into a bowl of very icy water for an additional 15 seconds. Remove it from the ice bath, dry it off with a paper towel or clean kitchen towel, and the skin should pretty much slip off. If necessary, you might have to get it started with a sharp paring knife, but generally that is not necessary.

Removing the pit from the peaches

If the peaches aren't freestone peaches, you will have to cut the pit out which will be messy and may ruin your slices which will also ruin your stars.

Sweetener options

You can substitute agave nectar for the honey as well. Either will help to balance out the fruit and add a little thickness to the dressing.

Fruit options

Other fruit that would work great in this salad include cherries, apples (the dressing will prevent browning), pineapple, blackberries, and raspberries.

Dressing options

You could use lemon or orange instead of lime for the acid in the dressing.

Nutrition

Keyword blueberries, fruit, honey, lime, peaches, strawberries, watermelon

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