Ideas For Fruit Salad – Festive Holiday Fruit Salad
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If you’re searching for festive ideas for fruit salad, you need this holiday fruit salad in your life! Featuring a variety of fruit in a creamy custard-like sauce, this fruit salad is one of my favorite treats… ever!
When it comes to ideas for fruit salad, I’ll always instantly turn to and recommend my Grandmama’s holiday fruit salad recipe. It’s my absolute favorite thing in the entire world to eat. I adore it. I love it. As my son said once, “This is so good. If it were a girl, I’d marry it!”. Yep, it’s THAT good.
So, what makes this refreshing fruit salad recipe so irresistible? Well, it includes lots of different fresh fruit, like apples, oranges, and grapes, plus multiple cans of fruit cocktail. Then instead of a , you drain the fruit juice and make a deliciously creamy and custard-like sauce with the juice, sugar, and egg yolks. Let the fruit salad sit in the fridge overnight so the fruit can soak up all that creamy goodness and you have yourself the perfect winter fruit salad.
This is a great dessert dish to take to festive potlucks and gatherings with friends and family. No one will be able to resist!
Recipe Ingredients
- Apples
- Oranges
- Seedless grapes
- 3-4 cans fruit cocktail (with juice)
- 1 cup sugar
- 6 egg yolks
Let’s first start with the ! Peel and chop apples. Place in a bowl.
Peel and cut up oranges. Cut oranges up over apples and stir so that the orange juice prevents them from browning.
Yep, no need for or . The does the job!
Cut grapes into halves. Place in the bowl.
Pour all of the fruit cocktail cans into the bowl, juice and all.
Stir well.
Drain the juice from the bowl of fruit into a saucepot.
Add sugar.
You CAN use Splenda in place of sugar here!
Separate eggs.
You can discard the whites or find another use for them. I’ve included some ideas in the notes section of the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Beat egg yolks well.
Add to the saucepot. Stir well.
Cook for approximately 15 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened.
Cool.
Pour over fruit. Stir, cover, and refrigerate.
Make at least 24 hours ahead so that flavors can marry.
Or they can just date for a bit. They’ll likely get along better if they haven’t signed on for a commitment after such a short time anyway!
Serve cold.
If you had any idea how wonderful this tastes you’d be dying right now!
Grandmama and Mama always store theirs in glass jars in the fridge, kind of like this one.
Storage
Leftovers will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for a week. I don’t recommend freezing leftover fruit salad.
Recipe Notes
- When it comes to topping ideas for fruit salad, I recommend coconut and/or pecans. You could also garnish the with or
- If you’d like to add more fresh fruit, you can add bananas to this fruit salad recipe. However, they turn dark quickly and the fruit salad will not last as long in the refrigerator.
- This is a . I wouldn’t recommend using .
- Another idea is to transform this into a , by using .
- Instead of fruit cocktail, you could use a variety of canned tropical fruit, like crushed pineapple, peach slices, or maraschino cherries.
- This is the perfect time to save those egg whites for the meringue on top of a pie or banana pudding! Here are my favorite dessert recipes using meringue:
Here are more fabulously festive recipes to make these holidays:
Southern Plate’s Must Make Christmas Cookies
Christmas Candies (On A Budget & In A Hurry)
Christmas Tie-Dyed Cheesecake Brownies
Sugared Cranberries (3 Ingredients Only)
Ingredients
- 6-8 apples
- 6 oranges
- 1 lb seedless grapes
- 3-4 cans fruit cocktail 15-ounce cans. You can use generic, it is every bit as good!
- 1 cup sugar
- 6 egg yolks*
Instructions
- Peel the fruit and chop them into small pieces. Cut the oranges over the apples so that the juice from the oranges will stop the apples from turning dark. Pour fruit cocktail cans over the fruit.6-8 apples, 6 oranges, 1 lb seedless grapes, 3-4 cans fruit cocktail
- Drain the juice from the fruit into a saucepan. Add 1 cup of sugar and 6 egg yolks. Blend well.1 cup sugar, 6 egg yolks*
- Cook for approximately 15 minutes over medium heat stirring occasionally until slightly thickened. Cool. Pour over fruit.
- Stir, cover, and refrigerate. Will keep in the fridge for a week. Make at least 24 hours ahead so that flavors can marry.
- Optional: coconut and pecans. Bananas can be added but they turn dark quickly and the fruit salad will not last as long in the refrigerator.
Notes
Banana Pudding
Lemon Meringue Pie
Orange Meringue Pie
Coffee Cream Pie
Nutrition
I want to try this but we are a small crew and that sounds like a lot for us. I will try and adjust the amounts to make a smaller batch.
I’m a little worried about all that sugar, not that I don’t like sugar, but I find that my sugar tolerance is lower than most when it comes to deserts. (Except for candy:))
Anyway, my husband makes a good one, he cuts up any kind of fruit he can think up to put in, adds pineapple juice, lets it “marry” for a day because it tastes better. It is very good.
Martha, here is a recipe for another fruit salad that I think is tailor made for you! We make it sugar free and it’s delicious! https://www.southernplate.com/2013/01/sugar-free-superfruit-salad.html
My mother-in-law makes a fruit “cocktail” along this line with mayo instead of eggs. She uses two cans of fruit cocktail in heavy syrup, chopped pecans, sliced bananas and mayo. Mix fruit cocktail, pecans, and mayo to taste in a large bowl. Refrigerate. When ready to serve, slice bananas into the mix and stir. We love, love , love it.
Because of the write-up I made this for Christmas gifts this year… recipe made A LOT, which pleased me, BUT it absolutely did not thrill anyone. Good idea, though sadly I won’t be making it again.
I am so sorry it wasn’t a thriller for you Diane, everyone in my family has always loved it. Hopefully you will find a few thrills in some other ways.
I made this tonight for dinner tomorrow. It is very juicy. Is that how it’s served or do you drain the liquid off before serving? TIA
My aunt made this yesterday for our family Christmas gathering. She told me it had egg yolks in it and I was a little concerned … until I read the recipe and realized they are cooked. It was fabulous! I can’t wait to make it for friends for New Year’s.
My Aunt Melba always made a fruit salad like this, but she added chopped pecans for me! I’m making it today for our family’s Christmas celebration and I expect I’ll have to make another batch for my husband’s family get-together later in the week.
How many people does the standard recipe serve?
In our family, two or three. We really love it 🙂 It depends on how folks eat in your family. I would say maybe 6 or 8, but if you have other desserts, not everyone is going to be eating this. It’s really all relative so my best advice is to look at the sizes of the ingredients going in and do a mental figuring.
I’ll be making this for our Christmas as well. I just made your Dirty Rice and was it ever good! A little “hot” for me so the next time, I’ll be cutting that down.
Merry Christmas to you and your family!
Made this for our family Thanksgiving and everyone enjoyed it and several asked for the recipe. Thank you for sharing.
Hope you and your family have a Blessed and Merry Christmas.
MERRY CCHRISTMAS.
I am so glad to hear it was such a hit!! Merry Christmas to you Emma!!