Home » Cuban Fruit Salad 
Cuban Fruit Salad

Cuban Fruit Salad 

Cuban Fruit Salad is a fun little twist on a classic. A fruit salad is always a good idea. It helps round out and balance any table. But we especially love this for a brunch or BBQ.

Our recipe use fresh fruit and is sweetened slightly with the juices from jarred mandarin oranges which keeps the fruit moist as it sits. The fruit is topped with some crunchy ingredients once its laid on a bed of citrus spiked yogurt. It’s a balance between fresh, crunchy and creamy flavors. 

We like using a mix of berries and tropical fruits. Use what you like because almost anything will work. Apples and stone fruits would be great additions or substitutions to this recipe, but keep in mind if you want to use banana it will brown as it sits. 

Cuban fruit salad can be served for breakfast or brunch. It’s perfect to accompany our Spanish Tortilla and French Toast Casserole. It’s slightly sweet so it can be served as a light dessert as well. It can be made for special occasions and holidays but you can also make a big batch to snack on during the week. 

Our Cuban fruit salad is an updated version of my grandmother’s fruit salad, which resembled an ambrosia salad. My grandmother’s creamy fruit salad was our inspiration for this recipe. My Alita Marta would mix an array of canned fruit cocktail with sour cream, orange yogurt, green food coloring, nuts and marshmallows and garnish with sweetened coconut and maraschino cherries. I know what you are thinking… insane.  But as insane as it sounds people loved it and craved it. Even crazier is that my grandmother considered this to be one of her healthy recipes, which says a little about her and a lot about Cuban food.   

Ani

Let’s Cook!

Cuban Fruit Salad 

Recipe by Abuelas Cuban CounterCourse: Appetizers, BrunchCuisine: CubanDifficulty: Easy
Servings

8

servings
Prep time

10

minutes
Cooking time

4

minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 cup of strawberries, hulled and halved

  • ½ cup of blueberries

  • 1 cup of grapes, halved

  • 2 cups of chopped mango

  • 1 ½ cups of chopped pineapple  

  • 8 oz mandarin oranges in their juice

  • 1 cup Greek yogurt, we like using 5% fat

  • Zest and juice of an orange

  • Zest of a lime

  • 2 tablespoons of toasted coconut

  • 2 tablespoons of marshmallows 

  • 1/3 cup sliced almonds

Directions

  • In a bowl whisk together the yogurt, lime zest, orange zest and about 1/3 cup of the juice from the orange. Be sure it is completely mixed in and not clumpy. Set aside. 
  • In a large bowl add all the fruit. Combine together including the mandarin oranges and their juice. This will slightly sweeten the fresh fruit.  
  • If you are not ready to serve, you can prep everything up to this point and keep in the fridge covered for a few hours. 
  • Once you are ready to serve. Spread the yogurt over a large platter. Top the yogurt with the mixed fruit. Be sure to add any liquid from the fruit. Top with coconut, almonds and marshmallows. Serve immediately