Fruit Salad with Furikake

Sometimes It’s the Unplanned Meals That Deliver the Most, Know What I Mean?

I’ve never been terribly impressed with the actual taste of dragon fruit. It’s too mild and lacks flavor. But I love its appearance. Whether the flesh is white or bright pink, all those black seeds make it beautiful. On a whim I bought 2 yellow skinned dragon fruit because I’ve only every bought the red skinned variety, and was hoping the yellow skinned version would have more flavor. Lo and behold, it did. It’s definitely sweeter than it’s red skinned relative. And very juicy.

As soon as I tasted it I knew I wanted it in a fruit salad and began looking in my fridge and on my counter to see what I had on hand. Dragon fruit would get lost among very tart or strongly flavored fruits, so I knew to stay away from tart apples, etc. 

I thought it would work really well with kiwi and decided red grapes would be nice, too. Then I glanced at the bunch of bananas on my counter and unexpectedly decided they’d be delicious paired with these other fruits. 

I haven’t included bananas in my fruit salads in decades and I don’t really know why. I suspect it’s because they seemed like a throwback to the fruit salads of my youth which were too sweet, so I moved on from those a long time ago. But they were perfect for this fruit salad. 

When putting together a salad made strictly of fruit, I think there should be very little dressing involved. If your fruit is good, not much else is needed. All you need is a little something to boost the tartness and add some interest to those lovely fruits.

I simply stirred together a tablespoon of agave syrup and a couple teaspoons of calamansi vinegar .* I chose agave over honey because it’s not quite as sweet, and calamansi vinegar * was a natural pairing, seeing as how it’s heavily citrus fruit centric in its flavor. Yes, this vinegar is expensive, but there’s nothing else like it. Not even close. It’s my number one favorite vinegar.

This was served as a salad with my meal, not as a dessert, so I wanted a savory element. As I was tossing around ideas, my son suggested furikake ,* the dry Japanese seasoning of nori, sesame seeds, salt, and sugar. Different brands add other ingredients, but these are the basic ingredients usually found in furikake .* I always have it in my pantry for sprinkling on rice, roasted veggies, etc. 

It ended up being the perfect topping for my fruit salad. Talk about fun and interesting to eat! What I’ve said over and over again holds true here: each bite is something different and delicious. This is my favorite way to eat. I had no idea I’d be eating this for dinner when I woke up. It simply came together naturally and worked out beautifully. I so hope you’ll give it a try. You’ll see what I mean. Sooooooo good!