Name: Poppy Seed Fruit Salad Dressing
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients: 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice; Zest of 1/2 lemon; 1/3 cup honey; 1/4 cup orange juice; 2 tablespoons olive oil; 2 tsp poppy seeds

This Poppy Seed Fruit Salad Dressing is what you’ll want to add to all your fruit salads this summer! Try it for your next picnic or BBQ – it’s so delicious!

For a very long time, I didn’t understand poppy seeds in any kind of salad dressing. Then I decided to give it a go anyways.

You. Guys. I was so wrong about this.

I love love love it in fruit salad (like in this winter fruit salad, or as a creamy poppy seed fruit salad dressing 😭❤ see it’s so good I’m emoji-crying about it).

I’ve also come to enjoy it in regular salads, but let’s talk about the dessert kind of salad today.

So, this one is a non-creamy fruit salad dressing, which is the only thing I knew before Pinterest introduced me to the idea of a creamy fruit salad. And by the way, I make my creamy fruit salad dressing naturally sweet and with greek yogurt. No pudding mix or whipped frozen topping (just STOP using this stuff!) to be found around this little corner of the internet.

I absolutely love using this on fruit if I know the salad is going to be sitting out for a while (can’t really do that with a dairy-based dressing!) or if I feel like a tangy, fresh bowl of fruit salad vs a more decadent custardy one.

What I love about this poppy seed fruit salad dressing:

It pops with freshness. Made with plenty of lemon juice and lemon zest, this is such a refreshing, tart addition to any kind of fruit.
It’s naturally sweetened. With honey and orange juice. I can’t get over the recipes using like a cup of sugar in a bowl of fruit salad. Been there, done that. That’s just not palatable.
It keeps well. You can easily make this a few days ahead and keep it tightly sealed in the fridge. If you’re making a lot of fruit salads during the summer, it’s handy to make a large batch to have on hand in the fridge. That way you don’t have to whip up your dressing from scratch every day!

You can really use this on pretty much any combination of fruit. For some berry salads or banana heavy salads, I tend to prefer a creamy dressing. But otherwise? This is a wild card kind of deal.

And I know I just said I like creamy dressing on berry salads… But this one on a strawberry fruit salad? Gimme.

Now the real beauty of this “recipe” is the one step it requires:

How To Make Poppy Seed Fruit Salad Dressing:

Whisk all ingredients together.

Yep, that’s it.

If I’m only making one batch, I’ll whisk it up straight in the salad bowl. If I’m planning on keeping the dressing in the fridge or if I want to dress the salad later just before serving, I add all ingredients to a small jar, close the lid well and shake. Keep it in the fridge and then just shake up again before pouring over your fruit salad!

I cannot believe I ever turned up my nose at poppy seeds in fruit salad.

But then again I also turned up my nose at leggings and skinny jeans and now LOOK WHAT I’M BASICALLY LIVING IN.

Guess I’m an anti-trendsetter. Or cautious. OR probably just plain weird? 🙈

Get the printable poppy seed salad dressing recipe: