There Is Such a Thing as a Great Fruit Salad

Yes, everybody makes basic cooking mistakes. Like, say, something as simple as overcooking mushrooms or toasting grains and spices. Below, reader Lola confesses her sad fruit salad woes to senior food editor Rick Martinez. Welcome to Effed it Up.

Oh, Lola,

The best fruit salad recipes hinge on amazingly ripe, delicious fruits (obvs). But they also needs textural contrast, a good dressing, and something unexpected to keep the palate awake and alive.

Making fruit salads is all about timing. Starting with fruit with firm (but not too firm) texture helps prevent mush. Summer fruit is phenomenal, but it also has a very short shelf life—and an even shorter window of optimal ripeness, usually one day max. On that one day, the fruit is sweet, juicy, and slightly tart. You essentially have to catch fruit in that brief but beautiful 24 to 48 hour period.

If your fruit is underripe, that's another problem altogether—and there is a cheat for it. If the fruit is one day short of ripe, leave it in a paper bag on your counter and watch as it magically transforms into ripe fruit the next day. If it's way too firm for just the overnight bag trick, you'll need sugar and acid to soften it. In the same way that you marinade meat to add flavor and tenderize tough cuts, adding sugar and acid to chopped, firm fruit will add flavor and will eventually soften the flesh. To do it: Add a few tablespoons of lemon juice and sugar to a pound of firm plums cut into thin wedges and toss until plums are completely coated. Cover and chill for 1 to 3 hours. Any longer than three and you will end up with mush—guaranteed. If they're still firm after three hours, you need to rethink what kind of seriously underripe plums you bought.

When picking your fruit, think about flavor and texture. Pick one or maybe two superstar fruits and build the salad around them. Identify the talent; love the talent. If the fruit is soft—say, a ripe peach, papaya, mango—pair it with something firm or even crisp. Try mixing your raspberries (soft) with something crunchy (say, apple, grapes, pears, or pineapple). Think about color and shape: What will give you a striking contrast? Consider ingredients beyond the fruit stand: cucumber, fennel, carrots, or even celery. Adding toasted, salted nuts or seeds can add depth and a welcome savory hit to sweet, ripe fruit too.

Just like any other salad, fruit salads need dressings. The only difference between a fruit salad dressing and the one you drown your lettuce in is that fruit salad dressing should be on the sweeter side. There should still be an acid, a fat, and a dominant flavor component. They can be vinaigrette-y (try a fruity or peppery olive oil) or creamy. And this is the time that you should pull out that nut or seed oil sitting in your fridge door. Whisk that together with wine vinegar or citrus juice and honey. Use citrus zest, tender herbs like tarragon, basil, mint, lemon verbena, sage, marjoram, or oregano, woody herbs like rosemary and thyme, warming spices, or even chile flakes to punch through the dressing and complement the fruit.

If your fruit is properly ripe, dress no more than 30 minutes before so it doesn't mush; if it's still firm, you can dress up to three hours before. If it's about to fall apart because it's really that ripe, dress it like you would a soft lettuce—only at serving time.

Ditch the cantaloupe, banana, and honeydew (unless you really, really want it). Grill some grapes and toss those with some peaches. Toss cubed tomatillo (a relative to the gooseberry and ground cherry) with a little lime juice and sugar. Once softened, throw in some mango and papaya cubes and sprinkle with ancho chile powder. Or create a flavored sugar with herbs, spices, tea, or zest. Put ½ cup sugar with a tablespoon of fresh herbs in a food processor and pulse until finely ground—then use that to season your salad.

Not all fruit salads are terrible, mushy, one-note messes. The more you know.

Love,
Rick