A vibrant and wonderfully aromatic Christmas fruit salad with exotic fruit like persimmons, pineapple, and mandarins.

Winter fruit salad

An aromatic winter or Christmas fruit salad full of flavorful fruit like persimmons, papaya or apples, clementines, grapes or kiwis, lychees, or whatever other fruit you choose to have.

An easy Christmas dessert, light and delicious, perfect after a heavier Christmas lunch or dinner.

Winter Fruit Salad with Cinnamon Star Anise Dressing

What fruit to use?

Ideally, any kind of exotic, winter fruit.
What I always use are persimmons – I actually never make this salad if I cannot find any persimmons, I adore them.
I also use clementines or mandarins, one or two kiwis, and some lychees (either fresh or canned is fine).
The rest changes according to what I find or what I feel like eating. If I can get papaya, then I buy papaya, if I cannot find I take apples instead.
Physalis is always great, but not always available. I add them when I have them. If not, I make this Christmas fruit salad using more grapes or more clementines.
Or pineapple, if you can get a nice and sweet one, then pineapple is always a great choice!

Fruit salad dressing

The dressing I used was some leftover from the Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pomelo and Cinnamon that I had made the day before, one of Yotam Ottolenghi’s wonderful recipes from Plenty More. (Amazon affiliate link)

He suggested to use the leftover marinade for a fruit salad and, obediently, I did. And it was absolutely fantastic.

Making dressing for a fruit salad might sound like too much work. After all, the fruit is always sweet and aromatic and a simple fruit salad doesn’t necessarily require any kind of dressing. Most of the time, I can get away with just sprinkling a little sugar on top or adding a little elderflower or mint syrup to the salad.

But do take the extra 3 or 4 minutes to make this special dressing, you will love it! It is so spicy and aromatic and fits everything so perfectly.

And it really takes only minutes to make: just bring a tiny amount of sugar, water, cinnamon stick, and star anise to a boil (1-2 minutes), dissolve the sugar for 1 minute, and add the lemon juice. That’s it! And it is perfect! (Amazon affiliate links)

More winter desserts

HOMEMADE RAFFAELLO COCONUT BALLS – These Raffaello truffles or 3 ingredient coconut balls would make an excellent addition to any Christmas present.

CHOCOLATE CRISPIES WITH CORNFLAKES AND CARAMEL – Amazing chocolate crispies made with caramel, cornflakes, and hazelnuts, these chocolate squares would make a wonderful homemade Christmas gift.

APPLE TIRAMISU – Creamy and delicious apple tiramisu. A wonderful applesauce dessert with ladyfingers, mascarpone, cinnamon, and cream.

MOIST APPLE AND CINNAMON CAKE – Probably your new favorite easy apple cake recipe.

YOGURT BOMB WITH BERRIES – Creamy strained yogurt and cream, topped with mixed berries, it cannot get any better or easier.