Easy Low Carb Fruit Salad Recipe with Vanilla Dressing
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This deliciously sweet & tangy low carb fruit salad recipe is the perfect healthy side dish or sweet treat to enjoy any time! With only 15 grams of net carbs per serving plus 4 grams of protein, it’s perfect to eat with breakfast or at snack time for some vitamins, minerals, and fiber.
Making Room for Fruit in All Eating Styles
While I’ve never been on a keto diet, I must admit that I spent several years avoiding fruit. It was not that I didn’t eat carbs, but it was because I had believed a lot of false claims about it being too high in sugar and how the fruit of today was “too big” to eat.
It wasn’t until I took some time to really weigh my food and track my macros appropriately that I realized how healthy and low-calorie fruit really was. Not only does it easily fit into most diet plans, but it may have protective benefits for our health.
With more research emerging about the gut microbiome, it’s becoming apparent that a rich diversity of plant food, such as fruit, is important for good health.
I personally do not follow a low carb diet, but I understand that there are good reasons why people may be watching their carbohydrate intake. As an example, my husband is a type 1 diabetic and needs to be “carb aware” to dose his insulin properly. That’s easier to do when the carb count is manageable, such as in this low-carb fruit salad recipe.
Regardless, it’s good to eat a variety of fruits & vegetables. Because the diversity of plant foods is important to me, this low-carb fruit salad recipe goes beyond a berry fruit salad, which is what you typically see for a low-carb or keto recipe.
Fresh berries are a key ingredient, but we have seven different fruits in this salad! Crispy apples, sweet plums, juicy peaches, and tangy pineapple in addition to our berries create a vibrant and well-balanced fruit salad.
All of these fruits have reasonable carbohydrate levels, so you’re not limited to just berries!
This easy fruit salad recipe is also a great thing to satisfy your sweet tooth. The fruit is cut into smaller pieces that allow each piece to get coated in the healthy yogurt dressing. The creamy texture of the yogurt combined with the tart flavor of the lemon juice creates the perfect combination of tangy and sweet to complement all of the flavors in the fruits.
Ingredients
To make this sweet & creamy fruit salad, you need a lot of fruit!
- Fresh Strawberries, Blueberries, and Blackberries– the Low Carb Champions
- Pineapple– While most tropical fruits are high in carbs, pineapple is the perfect addition to this salad to add flavor variances while still making the carb count reasonable for those on a low carb diet
- Peaches
- Plums– Choose sweet plums. Black plums are my favorite if you can find them, but I’m using white plums in this recipe.
- Apples– Choose your favorite variety! Save them for last so they don’t brown
- Lemon– to prevent the apples from oxidizing, and also to add tartness to our salad
You will also need some no Sugar Added Vanilla Greek Yogurt, such as Two Good, to make our light & healthy dressing.
Instructions
1. Wash & Chop Apple
Wash all of your fruit thoroughly and pat dry. Cut your apple into small cubes for easy bites and add it to a large mixing bowl.
2. Squeeze Lemon
After chopping the apples, slice the lemon in half and squeeze the juice right on top of the apples. Use a big spoon to make sure all the apple pieces get coated.
3. Chop Fruit
Chop all of the rest of your fruit ingredients into pieces the same size as the chopped apple. Add them to your large bowl.
4. Fold in Yogurt & Serve
Add your Greek yogurt to the bowl, then gently toss the fruit. Stir until everything is evenly coated with the yogurt and lemon juice. This makes a huge fruit salad. It’s great to bring to potlucks or barbeques. The sweet flavor also makes a great light dessert in the evening throughout the week.
Tips & Variations
- You can switch up the flavors in this easy recipe by trying different flavors of yogurt dressing. If you can find a sugar-free lemon yogurt or strawberry yogurt, those would also be delicious!
- If you don’t like some of these fruits, you can pull back on some of them and increase the proportion of others. You could also try subbing in some other low-carb fruits, like cantaloupe or watermelon. Getting seasonal produce at your local grocery stores will give you the freshest-tasting salad.
- If you can’t find vanilla Greek yogurt without added sugar, you can use plain yogurt and add a splash of vanilla extract and some of your favorite healthy sweetener, like stevia or monk fruit. You could also add honey or maple syrup– just know that will raise the carb count.
Serving Suggestions
This sweet fruit salad is perfectly refreshing on a hot summer day. It would be a great healthy side dish to bring to a Memorial Day or Labor Day party.
This salad also keeps things light for those seeking weight loss by using nonfat Greek yogurt with sugar-free sweeteners instead of loading this up with sugar, marshmallows, cream cheese, or whipped cream.
This delicious lower-carb fruit recipe is a favorite in my home. I am really working on getting my kids to eat a wider variety of plant foods, and fun healthy salads like this one make it so much easier.
Nutritional Information
This salad makes 10 servings. The nutrition information for one serving is as follows:
- Calories: 90
- Protein: 4 grams
- Fat: 1 gram
- Carbs: 15 net carbs (19 grams total)
- Fiber: 3.5 grams
Recipe Notes
Store this delicious salad in an airtight container. It has the best texture within the first two days of making it but will last up to 4 days in the refrigerator.
This healthy fruit salad recipe is an easy way to get more plant diversity in your diet in a way that tastes great.
The yogurt dressing gives us a level of flavor and creaminess without the fat found in heavy cream. It’s a refreshing snack for hot days, and helps you “eat the rainbow.”
Other Fruit & Veggie Recipes
Try some other delicious fruit & veggie recipes, like blistered tomatoes, smoked carrots, and Blackstone asparagus.
Try my blueberry protein breakfast crisp and my 3-ingredient Snickers dates!
Another relatively low carb salad featuring fruity flavors is my cucumber blueberry salad with tangy lemon dressing!
FAQ
There isn’t one right answer for this. It’s going to depend on how many carbs you plan to eat in a day, how you want to divide them, and what other foods you’re eating that contain significant carbs. Each person has a different definition of what constitutes “low carb.” For the purpose of this salad, I planned the carb count to easily fit as a nutritious snack into a macro plan of around 100 carbs per day, which is much less than the standard diet. The fruits we used to achieve this are apples, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, peaches, plums, and pineapple.
Absolutely! Not only can you, but you should! Fruit is delicious, and it contains vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and prebiotic fibers. You are missing out if you never partake!
And again I say…not only can you, but you should! Fruit salad can be a satiating way to satisfy cravings for sweet foods for very few calories.
You’ll Love this Easy Fruit Salad!
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Easy Low Carb Fruit Salad with Vanilla Dressing
Ingredients
- 1 large Apple of Choice - or two small– about 7 ounces
- 1 Lemon - or 2-3 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 medium Plums - about 8 ounces
- 1 large Peach - about 7 ounces
- 8 ounces Chopped Pineapple - about 2 1/2 cups
- 16 ounce Container of Strawberries
- 6 ounce Container of Blueberries
- 6 ounce Container of Blackberries
- 12 ounces Two Good Vanilla Greek Yogurt - or other low sugar vanilla yogurt brand
Instructions
- Slice your apple and then chop each slice into bite-size pieces. Put in a large mixing bowl.
- Slice your lemon in half or quarters and squeeze the juice onto the apples. Alternatively, you can use 2-3 tbsp bottled lemon juice. Toss with a spoon to coat the apples.
- Chop the rest of your fruit into bite-size pieces the same size as the apples. Add to the mixing bowl.
- Add your vanilla greek yogurt to the bowl of fruit. Stir gently to mix the yogurt with the fruit juices & lemon juice, and evenly coat each fruit piece.
Video
Yum! This was a great side dish for our breakfasts. The kids loved it, too!