Fruit Salsa

A simple refreshing fruit salsa has endless uses and only a 10-15 minute prep time. Great as a condiment for fish or chicken, taco filling, cheese & cracker topping and more.

I love this little fruit salsa recipe because it’s flexible, quick, easy, adaptable to your taste and, most importantly, flavorful and fresh. It’s a nice change from the typical tomato based salsas.

The fruit you choose is pretty much interchangeable in the recipe. For some purposes, like dips, you might want to chop the fruit more finely. I like to add a touch of honey, but again, that’s your choice and will also depend on the sweetness of your fruit. Ripe, seasonal fruits are best.

I particularly love a fruit salsa over fish or chicken as seen in the pictures below. Here are two of our recipes that use fruit salsa as a topping:

• Maple salmon with peach salsa
• Grilled chicken burgers with mango salsa

Salsa, Relish and Chutney – what’s the difference?

Salsas

• Typically uncooked vegetables and/or fruit
• Often contain, herbs, onion and some heat
• Most common are the tomato Mexican salsas
• Salsa is the Spanish word for sauce

Relishes

• Typically more finally chopped vegetables/and or fruit, often with a preserved or pickled component.
• Often contain a fair bit of sugar.

Chutneys

• Almost always cooked fruits and vegetables
• Often contain spices like cinnamon or cloves as well as herbs and chiles
• Sweet and tangy
• Chutneys are delicious served with meats or crackers with cheese. Try our peach chutney, apple chutney or pear chutney.
• Chutney is the Hindi word for sauce

Which fruits to use

• I typically use peach, mango or pineapple. Other great options – depending on the use – are watermelon, strawberry, kiwi and melon.

Ways to use fruit salsa

So many options. Here’s a few.

• Condiment
  • Serve mango or peach salsa over fish, chicken or pork
  • Top your fish, chicken or shrimp tacos with a mango, peach or pineapple salsa.
• Topping
  • Use as a topping for cheese and crackers, similar to how you would use a jelly. Cut the fruit more finely for this purpose.
  • Instead of a salad dressing, top your next green salad with a fruit salsa.
• Dips
  • Break out the corn chips, naan, pita or crackers for a fruit salsa dip. Be sure to drain the salsa before serving as a lot of juices will form as it sits around.
• Fillings
  • Use as a filling for burritos or quesadillas with chicken, meat, cheese, avocado, etc.
• Dessert – serve as a dessert with vanilla yogurt. Leave out the onion and hot sauce.

Tailor To Your Taste

The basics are fruit 🙂 onion, herbs, oil and some sort of acid.  I like to add a touch of honey as I mentioned, a bit of ginger and some chili flakes. Other options are:

• Use one fruit or a combination of fruits that you like. See suggestions above.
• Vary the level of heat with chili flakes, chopped jalapeno peppers or hot sauce such as sriracha
• Use lime, lemon or vinegar as the acidic component. Or even zest.
• Use chives or onion instead of the green onions.
• The look – cut the fruit finely or chunky.
• Chopped roasted nuts would be fantastic for certain uses e.g. cheese and cracker or salad toppings and desserts.

Make Ahead

• It’s best to let the fruit salsa sit for 30 minutes to an hour to let the flavors blend.
• It can also be made a day ahead.

How to make fruit salsa