Fruit Salad with Honey Walnuts Recipe - w/ Fresh Summer Fruit! (2024)

This fruit salad with honey walnuts is the perfect summer salad. Loaded with strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, apples, grapes, orange juice, and lemon zest. Topped with the most delicious honey walnuts made with butter, honey, cinnamon, and salt!

Today’s post is sponsored by theCalifornia Walnut Board. All opinions are my own.

If you love this fresh summer delight, you’ll also love: walnut cobb salad lettuce wraps, antipasto farro salad, and easy caprese salad.

Summer season = salad season. Pasta salads. Potatoes salads. Leafy green salads. And my personal favorite: fruit salads. Today, we’re making a fruit salad with honey walnuts. While I L.O.V.E. fruit on its own, it’s also so much fun to mix a bunch of your favorite fruits together, throw on some freshly squeezed citrus, and toss in some candied honey walnuts for crunch.

Summer season = salad season = the most perfect season.

Ingredients to make candied honey walnuts:

• California walnuts
  • Walnutsadd good fats, protein, and nutty deliciousness to all the fresh fruit.
  • Just 1oz of walnuts has 13g polyunsaturated fat and 2.5g monounsaturated fat– including 2.5g omega-3 ALA – and 4g of protein.
• Butter
• Honey
• Cinnamon
• Salt

How do you make honey walnuts?

Simply melt butter in a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Stir in honey, cinnamon, and salt until well combined. Then stir in the walnuts. Gently simmer the mixture together, stirring often, until the walnuts are coated in THE most delicious honey butter-y sauce. Cool completely.

How long can you store candied nuts?

Store these candied walnuts in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks or in the fridge for a few months! I prefer storing these in the fridge and letting them sit at room temperature for a few minutes before serving.

What is the best fruit for fruit salad?

• Strawberries
• Blueberries
• Blackberries or raspberries
• Apples
• Grapes

That’s what we’re using for today’s fruit salad with honey walnuts. What kind of fruit would YOU use? I like picking fruits with very different flavors and textures to keep things interesting. 🙂

Can you make fruit salad the night before?

You can prep all the components of this fruit salad the night before:

1. Wash, thoroughly dry, and cut the fruit as directed. Store in an airtight container the fridge.
2. Squeeze the orange juice and zest the lemon. Store these together in another airtight container in the fridge.
3. Make the honey walnuts. Again, store these in an additional airtight container in the fridge.

Tips for making fruit salad with honey walnuts:

• If desired, prep everything the night before like I mentioned above!
  • That being said, this is a GREAT last minute quick and easy, throw and go recipe.
• Don’t assemble the salad until the morning of. This will prevent your fruit from getting soggy, but also allows the fruit flavors to really meld together.
  • Again, that being said, this is still GREAT thrown together last minute.
• Keep the walnuts on the side. Have people put their own serving of fruit salad into a bowl and top with the honey walnuts. This keeps the walnuts from getting soggy.
  • If you REALLY want to mix the walnuts in, that’s fine, just wait until *just* before serving.

Summer’s freshest fruit, tangy citrus, and candied, crunchy, nutty walnuts . . .

. . . this salad’s got it ALL goin’ on.

– Jennifer

Thanks again to our friends attheCalifornia Walnut Boardfor sponsoring today’s post!