Sweet and Spicy Fruit Salad Recipe (2024)

Enjoy this amazing fruit salad two ways! After enjoying the fresh fruit salad, puree the leftover fruit salad in your blender, pour into small dixie cups and freeze overnight (add your wooden sticks @ 1-2 hours into the freezing process). These are the most delicious fruit pops you will ever eat - sweet and refreshing with a nice kick from the chile and star anise. They are the perfect anytime snack or dessert.

Sweet and spicy for sure! I love this salad. I would caution, however, against inhaling the steam/fumes while simmering the simple syrup with serrano chile! I highly recommend this recipe.

This looks so tempting; it caught my eye immediately today, but sadly, at this time (April) the only peaches and nectarines in the grocery store are imported from South America and not worth bothering with. They are certainly not "sweet", as the recipe requires. Please, please remind us again about this recipe in July!

Use 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper if don’t have serrano

Instead of using all five seeds in the entire star, dig out all but two of the seeds.

I didn't have star anise so I substituted cloves and allspice... It was wonderfully addictive! Don't skip the tarragon or the basil, both are essential to the dish. I suggest including bananas in with whatever other fruit you select because they balance the dish well. Also, it took me closer to 20 minutes to complete the syrup, and I took another user's advice and blended the extras for popsicles. I'm looking forward to those today!

Made with:2 - bananas1 - kiwi1 - large mandarin orange1 - pt blueberries1 - pt raspberries1 - mangoSubstituted mint for basil.Using a small serrano, seeded, resulted in *very* mild heat.

re: adding wooden sticks
Cover dixie cups with a square of foil to fit. Use the tip of a knife to make a slit in the middle of the foil, then slide the sticks into the slit. Voila! One-step prep!

I have bad news for you: honey is also full of sugar.

where is the mayo in this recipe?

I liked this a lot. One of my kids said, "it's kinda weird but I ate it". We all ate it, and I'll definitely make it again. I don't like super hot, so I removed the seeds and membranes of the chili, and I removed it from the sugar water infusing halfway through. That made just a little heat. It would still be very good without the chili pepper, I think. Just loved the anise basil tarragon mixture.

The sugar syrup can be changed up in so many ways. I made one using cardamon and ginger with mint and basil for the herbs. That said this is a great recipe!

Added lime zest (1 small lime) and it elevated this delicious dish even more!

This works out to just 1 teaspoon of sugar per serving.

This was absolutely delicious - a perfect side dish with grilled sausages. Delicious!

Very nice flavors. But the syrup seized when I put it on the fruit. Suggestions?

This wonderful recipe is delicious with berries of all sorts and with cantaloupe (honeydew might be overkill), but I just combined apricots with some blueberries and the result was just outstanding! Give that a try.

The syrup is killer! I didn't take out the membrane or seeds and it is quite spicy. I then made another batch with 2 star anise. That will help balance the spicy--i.e., soften the heat--by mixing the two in a ration of 3:1--not spiced to spiced. Using mango, blood orange, banana, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries all in a showy color collage and taste/texture explosion.

This my all time favorite fruit salad, I have made this at least 6 times since the holidays with rave reviews. Don’t throughout the leftover spicy simple syrup, use it for your drinks. Can anyone say Spicy Margarita!

Added 3 allspice, a bit of lime zest, and 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom to the syrup as it simmered, in order to cut the dominance of the star anise(family member not fond of anise). Said family member loved the salad and wants the recipe.

Fruit is sugar. Honey is sugar. This isn't a main course, it's a side or dessert. For heaven's sake, put some sugar on it, eat it, and be happy.

SYRUP POTION PORTION:More than simple syrup for margaritas, martinis etc.

with cherries and apricots-yum!

I accidentally poured my syrup down the drain. But I made a new batch with a fresh anise star and reused the Serrano because I only had one. Way less spicy, much milder; but it worked out okay. Good idea for folks who are less spice tolerant.

Served this at Sunday brunch; it was a big hit. We used the suggested fruit as a guide & chose what we like based on availability. We also added fresh Mission figs and served with Mascarpone on this side. We could not find star anise so I used anise extract. Delicious!

Absolutely intriguing and delicious flavor! This will be my go-to fruit salad recipe! I look forward to trying the fruit pops suggestion!

Left out the simple syrup and loved the mascarpone!

Great dish. I used 1/4 cup sugar and it was great. I used one Serrano but it could stand a little more kick for those who like more spicy. My fruit list:Blueberries, pineapple, pluots, nectarine, raspberries.

This was a hit! I followed the recipe exactly and everyone loved it. The syrup seemed really strong at first but calmed down after a few hours of being mixed with the fruit so it wasn’t too spicy. I only added half the syrup like the recipe says (to start). Great for parties!

This was spectacular! A big hit on the 4th of July.