Fruit Salad with an Orange Vanilla Bean Dressing
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Fruit Salad with Orange Vanilla Bean Dressing
Prep Time
20 mins
Cook Time
15 mins
Total Time
35 mins
 

This smells heavenly!   All fruit except bananas, kiwi and apples are a good choice for this fruit salad.

NOTE:  If serving as one of several side dish items, most people will only take 1/2 cup and this should easily serve 35 - 40 people.

Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: American
Servings: 22 (1 cup) servings
Ingredients
For the Dressing
  • 1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
  • 2/3 cup water
  • 1/3 cup orange juice (juice of 1 orange)
  • 2 tablespoons orange zest (zest of 1 orange)
  • 1 vanilla bean , seeded
For the Fruit
  • 2 quarts strawberries - sliced (8 cups total)
  • 2 pints blueberries 4 cups total
  • 2 (23.5 ounce) bottles mandarin oranges - thoroughly drained (5 cups total)
  • 2 pounds green seedless grapes 5 cups total
Instructions

  1. In a small saucepan, add the sugar and water. Zest the orange over the saucepan. Then split the orange and juice the orange to produce about 1/3 cup of orange juice. Add orange juice to the saucepan and stir to combine.  

  2. Bring to a boil, then turn heat to medium low and simmer for 20 minutes to thicken.  While dressing is cooking, split vanilla bean and scrape out seeds. When dressing is done cooking remove from heat and stir in the vanilla seeds then store dressing in the refrigerator until cold. 

  3. Meanwhile, prep the fruit:  Wash the berries and grapes and hull and slice the strawberries.  Thoroughly drain the mandarin oranges.

MAKE AHEAD NOTE: Salad can be made to this point the day before. It's very important to store fruit and dressing separate, covered, in the refrigerator.

  1. When ready to serve, place fruit in a large bowl. Drizzle the dressing evenly over the fruit.  If necessary, thin dressing by adding 1 - 2 tablespoons juice or water.  Gently toss to coat all fruit.