Summer is just around the corner, so I thought it would be refreshing to take advantage of a few seasonal ingredients from Hawaii. Star fruit is an amazing, eye-catching ingredient, especially when sliced, and can be found right now in your local market or gourmet grocery stores.

When choosing a sweet and ripe star fruit, you want to look for brown tips on the edges and a deep yellow color on the rest of the fruit. If the star fruit is still green, it will be sour and bitter when eaten. However, you can ripen them on a sunny windowsill, but make sure to eat them within a couple of days as they deteriorate quickly. The skin of the star fruit is edible and it can be eaten right out of your hand, so there is no need to peel it.

This tropical fruit salad recipe is all tossed together in one bowl. However, it would be fun to cut the fruit into larger pieces and serve them on skewers for a party or a picnic. My children love to eat things from a stick and they had a lot of fun with the leftovers, making their own combinations on the skewers.

This fruit salad recipe is refreshing, sweet and beautiful to look at when served. Please feel free to add a dollop of cream on top if you wish. I hope you enjoy it!

INGREDIENTS

3 cups unsweetened coconut flakes (shaved)
2 kiwis, peeled and sliced
2 cups fresh strawberries, sliced
½ cup sugar
2 cups fresh pineapple, cut into 1” cubes
2 cups fresh papaya or mango (or a combination), cut into 1” cubes
2 cups fresh honeydew melon, cut into 1” cubes
2 ripe bananas, sliced diagonally, ¼” thick
1 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 Star fruit, sliced thin

METHOD
Preheat oven to 350F.

1. Place the coconut flakes on a parchment lined, shallow baking pan and toast for 5 to 10 minutes or until the coconut is nice and brown around the edges. Set aside.
2. In a bowl, toss the strawberries and kiwis in the sugar and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, stirring occasionally. This technique is called macerating. The sugar will make a syrup which will be added to the salad.
3. In your serving bowl, coat the sliced bananas in the lemon juice (this stops them from going brown). Add the pineapple, papaya or mango, honeydew melon, macerated strawberries and kiwi. Toss gently to combine.
4. Decorate the bowl around the edges with the star fruit and sprinkle the coconut flakes over the top.

Serves 8

COOK’S NOTE:

You can toss some of the toasted coconut flakes into your salad if you wish. However, they will become soft if you do so. I like to follow step 4 above for decoration, but also serve a big bowl of the flakes on the side for your guests to sprinkle as they wish.