Bright and summery red, white, and blue patriotic fruit salad & honey lime poppyseed dressing with quinoa and walnuts is full of amazing flavors and textures, the perfect side dish for any meal!
All of your fruit salad dreams are coming true right now. Whether you realized it or not previously to reading this is questionable, but it’s true. You’ve been dreaming of the perfect combination of fresh fruits coated in the silkiest, sweet dressing you could ever ask for. And it’s all coming together right here, right now, in this bowl of red white and blue fruit salad.
And while we are on the subject of red WHITE and blue things, can we talk about milk for just a second?
Because yesterday I realized that I have not one, two, or three cartons of milk in my fridge, I actually have FOUR. Four cartons of milk. I go through it that quickly in my house.
Now on the one hand, I’m thinking I might need to talk to someone about my milk-buying habits because they could be borderline out of control… but on the other (wiser) hand I’m thinking hey, if I’m going to be impulse buying something, MILK is definitely the something it ought to be. It’s a whole, natural source of high-quality protein and goes in everything, on everything, with everything – case in point: this fruit salad. Milk is in that creamy honey lime poppyseed dressing and I’m recommending an 8-ounce glass of milk served right up alongside the fruit salad to wash down all of that berry-banana-apple-quinoa-walnut goodness.
But I might want to consider the idea of upgrading from quarts to gallons if I’m going through milk that fast. If nothing else, just for better use of fridge space. Gotta make room for all of the fresh fruit I’ve been plowing through the past few weeks to make this fruit salad again and again and again and aga- you get it. It’s on repeat over here.
Also, am I the only one who gets overly excited about star-shaped fruit?? Something about it brings out the kid in me and it’s not too hard to see why – my three year old niece ate almost every single star from the serving bowl before our family party even started last weekend. On the up-side the kids are gonna be happier than ever to be eating their fruit when you serve this salad!
This fruit salad comes together quickly and with hardly any prep so it’s perfect for any occasion. You might just want to prepare yourself emotionally to be named Best Fruit Salad Maker of All Time at your next get together because when you arrive with a dish this delicious and beautiful as this one, it’s bound to happen.
I mean it has star-shaped apples, people. Come on.
Patriotic Fruit Salad & Honey Lime Poppyseed Dressing
Ingredients
- 4 medium Fuji apples - cored and thinly sliced into rings
- 2 cups strawberries - halved
- 2 cups raspberries
- 2 cups blueberries
- 1 cup bananas - sliced
- ⅓ cup quinoa - cooked
- ½ cup walnuts - chopped
Dressing
- ⅓ cup fat free milk
- ¼ cup reduced fat mayo
- 4 tablespoons fat free plain Greek yogurt
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon lime juice - (or juice of 1 lime)
- 1 teaspoon lime zest - (zest of 2 limes)
- 3 teaspoons poppyseeds
- milk - (see note)
Instructions
- Using a 1-2-inch star-shaped cookie cutters, cut apple slices into stars. Dice remaining apple pieces (about 1/4 cups worth). Add apple stars, apple remnants, strawberry halves, raspberries, blueberries, banana slices, quinoa and walnuts to a large bowl and stir to combine.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together all dressing ingredients until smooth. Pour over fruit and nuts and toss to combine. Cover and chill for 30 minutes to an hour before serving. Pair each serving with 8-ounce glass of milk.
Notes
Nutrition
This post was sponsored by Milk Life – thanks for letting me work with the brands I love. For more great meals you can make or pair with milk, check out the Milk Life website and follow them on their social channels below!
