Thanksgiving Fruit Salad (Fall Fruit Salad)

This Thanksgiving Fruit Salad with a simple honey-orange dressing is a go-to recipe for home chefs looking to add a vibrant, healthy addition to their holiday table.

“This was a huge hit at Thanksgiving. Everyone agreed that we will make it a regular dish. We all loved it! SO good!”

—Shayna

Thanksgiving Fruit Salad Should Have a Place on Every Table!

With over a quarter of a million page views, our Thanksgiving Salad and this Thanksgiving Fruit Salad recipe have become go-to recipes for home chefs year after year since they were originally published.

Whether you offer a salad or fruit salad as part of your menu is entirely up to you, but we think they’re a nice side dish addition to the meal. The fruit, in particular, is a good option if lots of kids are running around. But people of all ages seem to enjoy a scoop of something light and fresh that really balances all of the rich, heavy things on the plate.

So grab your prettiest serving bowl, select the freshest autumn fruit you can find, and stir up the easiest orange-honey dressing for the best fall fruit salad recipe you’ll ever make. Not just for Thanksgiving, because it feels right anytime in October or November.

Thanksgiving Fruit Salad Recipe Ingredients

• grapes – I like red seedless grapes, but any color works well in this fall fruit salad recipe. If grapes aren’t your thing, readers have reported using blackberries, blueberries and/or raspberries in place of grapes.
• mandarin oranges – yep, the canned kind. Preferably packed in water. You can also segment a few clementines if you’d prefer that instead.
• pear – I like a nice crisp green pear. D’anjou and Bartlett pears are best here (Bosc pears are really better for baking).
• kiwi – honestly, not MY favorite fruit, but my daughter loves it, so it’s included here for her!
• apple – I used Honeycrisp for this Thanksgiving fruit salad recipe, but Gala apples are also great. Cut it into bite size pieces.
• pomegranate arils (seeds) – I’ve found these hard to find at a lot of stores in the past few years, but Trader Joe’s always seems to have them!
• pecans – or walnuts! I like to add nuts for crunch in this fruit salad for Thanksgiving, but they can be omitted if there are any guests with nut allergies.
• dried cranberries – It’s Thanksgiving, so there has to be cranberries!

Do You Need Fruit Salad Dressing?

Whether or not you “dress” your fall fruit salad is really a matter of taste. I’ve had plenty of delicious fruit salads that were nothing more than chopped in-season fruit at the peak of ripeness and flavor.

However, this holiday dinner is known for being over the top, so why not take your fruit salad for Thanksgiving to the next level with a fruit salad dressing?

My Thanksgiving fruit salad dressing is nothing more than a simple whisking together of fresh orange juice, pumpkin pie spice and honey (or substitute maple syrup for honey). A little pour of it adds a sweet, bright, seasonal flair to the already-delicious fruit.

If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice on hand, you can use all cinnamon.

How to Keep Fruit Fresh Until You’re Ready to Serve It

There are so many ways to prevent apples and pears from turning brown, and everybody seems to have their own favorite method. The Cookful has an article on 10 ways to stop apples from browning, and I bet you’ve already tried some of them.

A lemon juice solution is a classic method for a reason. And the salt water method seems to have it super fans.

I usually have citric acid around for food styling, so I generally reach for that (it’s also super handy to have on hand to descale a coffee maker!).

To use citric acid to prevent fruit from browning, I prepare a quart of cold water in a large bowl, and stir in 2 teaspoons of citric acid until it is dissolved. Then, as I chop my apples and pears, I transfer them to the bowl of citric acid water.

When everything is chopped and in the bowl, I use my hands to scoop the fruit out of the bowl and onto a clean kitchen towel. I pat the fruit dry and it’s ready to use!

Whatever method you choose, you’ll probably want to do something to keep your chopped apples and pears fresh throughout a long, leisurely Thanksgiving dinner.

Serve Fall Fruit Salad in Small Jars for a Cute Touch

I had a bunch of jam jars sitting in my photography studio from when I made jarcuterie, and on a whim, I spooned some of this fruit salad into the jars.

I think this would be a really fun serving idea for a Thanksgiving buffet line, or a Friendsgiving gathering. Or, like I mentioned earlier, simply choose your most beautiful bowl to serve this autumn fruit salad recipe in.

How to Make a Smaller Batch of Thanksgiving Fruit Salad

The fall fruit salad recipe as written below makes about 8 servings, but truthfully, I have a small family and we never have 8 people for Thanksgiving dinner.

To make a smaller half batch of autumn fruit salad, choose either an apple OR a pear (so that you don’t end up with half an apple and half a pear left over), and simply halve the rest of the ingredients.