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This easy Fruit Salad Dressing recipe is a delicious way to elevate your next bowl of fruit or summer salad. It’s a simple blend of orange juice, lemon zest, and honey, and it really makes the flavors of fresh fruit pop.
Just to state the obvious, fruit salad does not NEED a dressing; it’s fine on its own. Fruit is naturally sweet and full of flavor, and you don’t ever need to add a dressing.
However, I like to add fruit salad dressing when I serve fruit salad at parties. People have fruit at home all the time, and even fruit salad. But a simple, citrus-honey dressing like this one is a simple way to put my special twist on a predictable, albeit naturally delicious, bowl of fruit.
It’s surprising and unexpected and really pulls the dish together. It transforms your “bowl of fruit” into a true “fruit salad.”
Table of Contents
Recipe ingredients
At a Glance: Here is a quick snapshot of what ingredients are in this recipe.
Please see the recipe card below for specific quantities.
Ingredient notes
- Honey: Maple syrup (not pancake syrup) and agave nectar also work.
- Lemon zest: You’re aiming to zest just the colored portion, not the more-bitter white pith. Here are four different ways to zest a lemon.
Step-by-step instructions
- In a small bowl whisk together honey, orange juice, and lemon zest.
- Drizzle over fruit and refrigerate for 1 hour before serving to meld flavors.
Recipe tips and variations
- Yield: This recipe makes ½ cup dressing, enough to dress 1 fruit salad or make 4 servings, 2 tablespoons each.
- Storage: Store leftover dressing covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- Make ahead: The dressing can be made up to 3 days in advance. Stir or shake to recombine before using.
- Make it your own: Customize your salad dressing as you see fit. Swap in lime zest for the lemon juice, use sugar instead of honey, or add a teaspoon of poppy seeds.
Recipe FAQs
There are several ways to zest a lemon, but the easiest way is with a microplane grater: Hold the grater in one hand and the lemon in the other over a cutting board or clean work surface. Going in one direction, push the lemon away from you across the rough side of the grater, removing the colorful part of the fruit, exposing the pith. Gently rotate the lemon as you go, to get all of the zest you can from each fruit. The zest might stick to the underside of the grater; just give it a tap and it will fall off.
Store leftover fruit salad dressing covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
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Fruit Salad Dressing
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup honey (see note 1)
- 1/4 cup freshly-squeezed orange juice
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest (see note 2)
Instructions
- In a small bowl whisk together honey, orange juice, and lemon zest. Drizzle over fruit and refrigerate for 1 hour before serving to meld flavors.
Recipe Video
Notes
- Honey: Maple syrup (not pancake syrup) and agave nectar also work.
- Lemon zest: You’re aiming to zest just the colored portion, not the more-bitter white pith. Here are four different ways to zest a lemon.
- Yield: This recipe makes ½ cup dressing, enough to dress 1 fruit salad or make 4 servings, 2 tablespoons each.
- Storage: Store leftover dressing covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- Make ahead: The dressing can be made up to 3 days in advance. Stir or shake to recombine before using.
Nutrition
Meggan Hill is a classically-trained chef and professional writer. Her meticulously-tested recipes and detailed tutorials bring confidence and success to home cooks everywhere. Meggan has been featured on NPR, HuffPost, FoxNews, LA Times, and more.
This recipe deserves 5 stars if only for the combination of being supremely quick, easy, and tasty as a dressing for a lot of fruit in the middle of the summer. In addition, it’s light, doesn’t seem too caloric, and doesn’t mask, but rather enhances, the flavors of the fruit. If you’re lucky, like me, and have a lemon tree in the yard, all the ingredients are already in the fridge and pantry.
Thank you so much for the lovely comment, Marty! I’m so glad you loved it and found it versatile and easy to make! Take care! – Meggan
Excellent fruit salad dressing!
I’m so glad you loved it! Take care! – Meggan