Summer Fruit Salad with Orange Blossom and Fresh Mint served with Rose Perfumed Yoghurt

Fruit salads are an easy dessert to make and a super easy way of adding a variety of fruit to your diet. You are more inclined to reach out for fruit already prepared, either in a fruit salad or simply sliced and presented nicely. Also, as this is the month of Ramadan, a quick dessert might be favored over a more labour intensive one. This simple fruit salad consists of oranges, sungold kiwifruit and strawberries, perfumed with the middle eastern flavor of orange blossom and garnished with fresh mint. Leaving the fruit salad in the fridge for about half an hour to an hour before serving, brings all the wonderful fruity flavors together and mellows the flavor of the orange blossom. When using perfumed waters such as rose or orange blossom, a little goes a long way. You can use more, or less depending on your taste.

I love nothing more than adding a dollop of fresh cream on top of fruit salad and sometimes use greek yoghurt, flavoring it with rosewater and sweetening with real maple syrup. The sweetness in the salad comes from the fruits, so choose the sweeter Zespri sungold kiwifruit over the green variety and strawberries are in season at the moment. Use fresh orange segments (without the attached membrane) and if you have never removed the membrane surrounding orange segments before, head over to The Kitchn and see how… it’s easy. Do use a well sharpened paring knife, it makes cutting much easier.

When cutting out the segments, hold the orange over a small bowl to collect the dripping juice. Also squeeze any remaining juice with your hands from the remaining membranes and peel with bits of orange still attached. No wasting of precious orange juice here. Fresh orange segments are also a refreshing addition to salads like this  Spinach Salad with Dates, Oranges, Pomegranate and Feta Cheese  or a Salad of Cucumber Ribbons, Fresh Dill and Orange.  Just a few easy ways to enjoy your daily fruit.

Summer Fruit Salad with Orange Blossom and Fresh Mint served with Rose Perfumed Yoghurt

(Serves 4 )

Ingredients:

for the fruit salad

• 3 large oranges, segmented (membranes removed), cut segments into half. Reserve the collected juice.
• 3 sungold kiwifruit, peeled and cut into cubes
• 1 punnet of strawberries washed, hulled and cut into cubes
• 2 teaspoon of orange blossom water
• 2 tablespoons shredded fresh mint leaves

for the yoghurt

• 1 small tub of unflavored greek yoghurt
• real maple syrup, to sweeten
• 1 teaspoon of rose water

How to make:
Place the orange, kiwifruit, strawberries, reserved orange juice and orange blossom water into a glass serving dish. Gently combine ingredients together and leave covered in the fridge for about 30 minutes or up to an hour, for the flavors to mingle.

Meanwhile, place the yoghurt into a small serving bowl, sweeten to taste with maple syrup. Stir in the rosewater, cover and leave the yoghurt in the fridge until needed.
To serve: Garnish the fruit salad with fresh mint before serving. Serve the flavored yoghurt alongside the fruit salad.