During sunny summer months most folks look for food that hits the spot but doesn't weigh them down. Ripe fruit is right on target. It's succulent, refreshing, sweet and light in the stomach.
Today's fruit salad recipe is one I make a lot during the spring and summer, but it can be made other times of the year, too. Since canned mandarin oranges and bananas are available in most areas year- round, all you need is fresh pineapple and grapes. My 17-year-old daughter loves the way the bananas taste after they've soaked with the mandarin oranges, and I sometimes have to add more bananas to the fruit bowl because her portions tend to be heavy on them.
Sometimes I add blueberries or cut up strawberries, if I happen to have them. They integrate well into the basic combination of fruit, and give a healthful dollop of nutrition. If you do add blueberries, be sure to do it shortly before you plan to serve the fruit salad, since blueberries tend to turn everything purple.
You could use canned pineapple, but I wouldn't recommend it. It's not that the fruit salad will taste bad, but the taste and texture of fresh pineapple is superior.
If you have never cut up a fresh pineapple, don't be daunted by its prickly leaves and rough exterior. You will need a sharp knife and a sturdy cutting board, but it's not rocket science.
First cut off the top, with its sharp, spiny leaves, then cut a slice from the base. Place the pineapple upright on a cutting board. Place the sharp knife at the top of the fruit about inch inside the rough skin, and cut downward, slicing off a segment of the skin. Continue around the pineapple in this fashion until all the rough skin is cut away. If there are small pieces of skin or "eyes" still adhering to the fruit, cut them away as well. You should now have a "naked" pineapple.
With the fruit still upright, cut it vertically in half, then cut each half in half. You should now have four large wedges. Each wedge has a section of the core. You will see that it is slightly lighter in color than the edible fruit of the pineapple. Make a long vertical cut through each wedge to cut away the core. At this point you will have a good sized pile of waste to discard. What remains is juicy fruit that you can cut into chunks.
Pineapple is an excellent source of vitamin C. One cup of cut pineapple has 33 percent of the recommended dietary allowance for this important vitamin.
One cup of fresh pineapple also has all the manganese you need in a day, plus a little more. Manganese is a key component in many enzyme systems in the body, including the enzyme superoxide dismutase. This enzyme helps to decrease the amount of free radicals produced in the mitochondria. Mitochondria manufacture energy in the body's cells.
Be sure to choose pineapple that are heavy for their size, with no soft spots. They should have a sweet smell at the stem end. I find that the sweeter, riper pineapples have more gold and less green in their coloring. While pineapple don't ripen after picking, if you leave them out a day or two before serving they will be softer and juicier.
Fruit Salad
2 cans (15 oz. each) mandarin oranges
3 bananas
1 fresh pineapple
3 cups red grapes
Open one can of mandarin oranges and drain, discarding liquid. Put orange segments into a large bowl. Open second can of mandarin oranges; pour out approximately half of liquid in can. Add the orange segments with the remaining liquid into the large bowl.
Peel bananas and cut into -inch rounds. Add to bowl with the oranges. Stir to coat bananas with the liquid from the mandarin oranges. Be sure to stir carefully so you don't break up the bananas and get them too mushy.
Peel, core and cut pineapple into bite-sized chunks. Add to bowl with oranges and bananas.
Wash grape bunches and separate the fruit from their stems. Add to the fruit in the bowl, stirring carefully to distribute.
Chill and serve.
Makes about 11 cups.
Per 1 cup serving: 134 calories, 0 gm fat, 0 gm saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 28 gm carbohydrates, 2 gm fiber, 1 gm protein, 9 mg sodium.
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