Summer Fruit Salad with Raspberry Sauce

Summer is my favourite time of year, not just because of the warmer weather, but also because of the fabulous summer fruits.  Summer fruits are my favorites, from the fresh berries, melons, apricots, plums, peaches to cherries, I love them all.

And the best way to enjoy them is in a fruit salad.  In summer I always have a bowl of fresh fruit salad made up in my fridge, ready for an easy lunch or delicious dessert.

The great thing about a summer fruit salad is that there are virtually no rules:

• Almost any fruits can be used. Go for whatever is fresh, available and in season.

• Think color. For a visual feast choose as many different colors as possible, from the bright green of kiwi fruit, through to the orange of cantaloupe and the sparkling red of strawberries.

• Then all you need to consider is the dressing. This can be anything from a creamy dressing (I’ve simply made mine from pureed fruit), to a balsamic dressing or a citrus dressing.

Fresh Fruit Salad

Ingredients

¼ watermelon
½ cantaloupe melon,
1 peach, quartered and sliced
10 strawberries
1 bunch of grapes

How to Make

1. Peel, deseed and dice the watermelon and cantaloupe. Place in a bowl. Cut the peach in half and remove the stone. Cut each half into quarters, then cut each quarter again. Add to the melons in the bowl.

2. Wash the strawberries, then hull and cut in half or quarters (this really depends on their size). Add the grapes. You can use either green grapes or red, depending on which color you wish to add to your salad. Or you could add both.

3. Spoon into individual glass serving dishes and drizzle over raspberry sauce.

Summer Fruit Salad

Ingredients

¼ watermelon
4 apricots, halved and sliced
1 peach, quartered and sliced
10 strawberries, hulled and halved
10 cherries
20 raspberries

How to Make

1. Peel, deseed and dice the watermelon. Cut the apricots in half and slice into smaller segments. Quarter and slice the peach. Wash the strawberries, hull and cut in half. Cut the cherries in half and remove the pit.

2. Place all the ingredients into a large bowl and gently mix until combined.

3. Serve in individual bowls with raspberry sauce.

Raspberry Sauce

Forget about other raspberry sauces made with loads of sugar, this one is super healthy.  It probably resembles more of a smoothie, but it works well as a sauce nonetheless.   It just adds that extra zing to fruit salads without being overly sweet.

You will need:

1 banana
½ cup unsweetened orange juice
½ cup frozen raspberries
1 nectarine
¼ cup frozen yogurt

Place all ingredients into a blender and blend until it becomes smooth.