In this Falliday Recipe series I’m sharing some of my favorite fall holiday eats. I started making this Fall Fruit Salad a few years ago as way to bring something EASY & EXCITING (a seasonally appropriate WOW dish) to Falliday gatherings.

Favorite Falliday Recipes

I love using flavored Balsamic Vinegars; its like a shortcut to instant Falliday Spirit in my salad dressings, hot beverages, and baked goods. Therefore, each Falliday recipe idea features a fun Balsamic Vinegar which I get from a local vendor, Third Street Oil & Vinegar. 

However you can find these flavors on Amazon as well or better yet, your local oil and vinegar purveyor. 

Fall Fruit Salad

WITH BLACKBERRY GINGER BALSAMIC VINEGAR

“Traditional” (meaning what I used to see as a kid at church potlucks) fruit salads used to make me think of canned fruit cocktail or something smothered in a heavy cream (miracle whip, anyone?). These days I do all fresh fruits and IF there is a dressing, it’s either a low sugar yogurt or…you got it…balsamic vinegar and some honey drizzle.

I love fruit salads all year long. It’s an easy way to get a variety of seasonal fruits in my diet in one dish. Even better, prepping a big bowl lasts us a couple days.

Ingredients:
1 Pomegranate’s worth of arils (see my quick extraction method below)
1 Large Apple, skin on (I used Fuji but Honeycrisps are great)
2 Skinned Pears
2 or 3 Fuyu Persimmons (there are two kinds…see note)
2 Tbs Blackberry Ginger Balsamic Vinegar
Optional: A sprinkling of cinnamon or a drizzle of ginger juice/syrup goes a long way.

Steps:

1. Cut the fruit. Put it in a bowl. Mix in the vinegar dressing.
2. Eat it. Why make it more difficult than it needs to be?

NOTE ON PERSIMMONS

First of all, they’re usually expensive. Second, you may find there are two kinds at the store; Fuyu and Hachiya. Fuyu has a flat bottom. Hachiya have oval bottoms, sort of like a Roma Tomato. Hachiya are tart and astringent…unless they’re so ripe they’re mush. I hear they’re great for jellies.

Use Fuyu for eating raw because they’re sweet yet still firm when ripe (orange and slightly soft to the touch). If you get an overripe Fuyu you can put it in the freezer for a bit before you peel it to firm it up. Otherwise it can be a mush fest and the final result is less pretty.

QUICK AND BLOODY ARIL EXTRACTION

There are several ways to skin a cat remove arils from a pomegranate. I do it this way (thanks to watching this unnecessarily long Youtube video) because it’s fast and I don’t care if a few arils burst in the process. There are always plenty to go around.

The downside to this method is the blood bath you may have to clean up afterward. I made this last week right before I had a to take a phone call. Moxie was outside noshing on a bone and didn’t want to come in. So I left her outside, ran upstairs to my office, and left a few pomegranate juice drops on the floor. Then my husband came home. It was dark. Dog was outside in the cold. Red drops on the floor. His first thoughts: “Who is bleeding and where is my wife?” Eh heh.

BONUS: These fruits are also great over leafy greens.

PIN THE RECIPE

More Falliday Recipes:

• SWEET POTATO CRUMBLE
• GINGER APPLE CIDER
• DIRTY PEAR TODDY
• PUMPKIN GINGER MUFFINS

What are your favorite Falliday food traditions?

Thanks for letting me share my favorite fall food ideas and it inspires you, I’d love to hear about it! Poms, persimmon, and sweet potato get me excited for the Fallidays. And I haven’t even touched on pumpkin (but I’ll leave that to the rest of the internet which is bleeding pumpkin right now)!