Take advantage of your favorite seasonal fruits to put together the BEST fresh fruit bowl! I’ve got a few easy tips for cutting, storing and assembling your fruit so that it tastes and looks amazing.
If there were ever an award for most beautiful fruit bowl presentation, my mom would win, hands down! A huge bowl of amazing, fresh fruit was a staple at our house growing up, pretty much all year round. I never thought anything of it because it was such a normal part of our meal time.
Now that I have a young family of my own I also love to have tons of fresh fruit to serve with almost every meal. Fresh fruit, especially raspberries and blackberries, qualify as “treats” for my kids. If they eat their dinner all gone then they get a bowl of fruit at the end of the meal.
You wouldn’t believe how motivating that is for them 🙂 I love it. Fruit is so sweet and delicious it should get us just as excited as candy does!
My mom taught me at a young age some tips for making a great fruit bowl, including how to cut the fruit and how to store it.
Source: Tastesbetterfromscratch.com
CHOOSING RIPE FRUIT:
Here’s a great seasonal produce guide to help you determine which fruit to use.
Tips for choosing a watermelon: Tap the watermelon and listen for a deep hollow sound.
Tips for choosing a pineapple: Choose one that has healthy green leaves, a firm “shell” and is golden-yellow in color. You can also smell it to make sure it smells sweet.
CUTTING THE FRUIT:
Cut the fruit into small pieces. It’s easier to serve, easier for people to eat, and it looks prettier in the bowl!
Watermelon: I cut it in half, lengthwise and the cut those in half again so that I have 4 quarter “wedges”. Then I use my knife to slice it into pieces, and sweep the knife along the line of the rind at the bottom of each wedge.
I use this same method for cutting my pineapple (just remove the rind from the center of each wedge).
ASSEMBLY:
Assemble your fruit bowl just before you’re ready to serve. (Note: This doesn’t mean you have to cut up all of the fruit at that time. I’ll explain more on storing the fruit ahead of time, in a minute)
Have you ever bought a pre-cut mixed fruit bowl from the store? Although they look delicious and appealing, you’ve probably noticed they never taste as good as they look.
When all of the fruit sits together in a container for a long period of time, all of the flavors start to blend together. Do you know what I mean? That’s why I always like to mix the fruit together right before serving.
STORING:
The best way to prevent the flavors of the fruit from all blending together is to store the fruit in separate gallon-size ziplock bags after you cut it! Stick a few folded pieces of paper towel in the bottom of the ziplock bag to help soak up some of the excess juice.
When you’re ready to serve, simply grab the bags of various fruit from your fridge, add them to your serving bowl and gently toss to combine.
