Watermelon Fruit Salad
Ligia Lugo
Published:
July 18, 2025
Last Modified:
February 18, 2026
This watermelon fruit salad is a refreshing combination of summer fruits like juicy watermelon, sweet cherries, and decadent fresh raspberries. The blend is bathed in a citrus-agave dressing featuring the fresh flavors of bright lime.
This fresh fruit salad might as well be a study in color; the deep maroon of fresh cherries, wet red of summer strawberries, ruby colored raspberries, and bright pink watermelon flesh create an explosion of monochromatic color.
While the inspiration may have been purely visual, the taste of course had to check out too! To accentuate the sweet and tangy fruit flavors, I used the “mojito technique” to make a summery dressing for this salad, muddling big mint leaves with agave nectar and lime juice.
It’s hard to decide whether I get greater enjoyment out of looking at this salad or eating it, but thankfully, you get to do both! Have your fruit salad and eat it too.
Watermelon Fruit Salad Ingredients
For the Salad:
- Fresh strawberries – As convenient as frozen strawberries are, they really won’t provide the right texture here so make sure to use fresh fruit for this salad.
- Fresh watermelon – Choose seedless watermelon to minimize your workload if possible. If you can only find watermelon with seeds, take the time to poke the seeds out with a chopstick or skewer.
- Fresh cherries – Opt for a sweet cherry variety like Bing, Rainier, or Black cherries, keeping away from sour cherries (such as Morello). Unless you are able to find pitted fresh cherries, you’ll need to pit them yourself–tips below!
- Fresh raspberries – These delicate berries round out this fruit salad with their lovely soft texture and natural sweetness. Make sure to check your raspberries carefully as they are notorious for going moldy! If there are one or two moldy berries in your package, don’t worry, you can safely discard just the ones that have mold spots and give the rest a rinse under cold running water.
For the Dressing:
- Agave syrup – Provides a neutral sweetness and has a thin and runny texture that easily coats your fruit mixture.
- Fresh lime juice + lime zest – Using both parts of the citrus fruit is key here, as the acidity is found in the lime juice while the zest is rich in flavorful citrus oils.
- Fresh mint leaves – Fresh mint has a ton of flavor locked within the structure of its leaves. By mixing whole leaves into the base of dressing, we’ll release all of that deliciousness out and into the salad.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Prepare the fruit. Slice whole strawberries into quarters, dice watermelon into bite size pieces (you could also use a melon baller to create rounds if you prefer), and remove cherry pits, leaving the cherries whole.
- Combine. Place all of the prepared fruit in a large mixing bowl.
- Make the dressing. Place agave syrup, lime juice, lime zest, and fresh mint leaves in a separate mixing bowl. Use a muddler (or the back of a spoon) to gently pound the mint and zest with the syrup and juice, releasing the flavorful oils.
- Toss. Spoon the fruit salad dressing over the fruit mixture, then gently toss to coat evenly.
- Chill and serve. Cover the fruit salad loosely with plastic wrap, then refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving. Toss again just before serving, then garnish with additional mint leaves and serve!
Tips From Ligia
To pit cherries without a cherry pitter:
Use a simple item like a chopstick, wooden skewer, or even a drinking straw! Simply push the tool of choice through the stem end of the cherry until the pit pops out the other end.
How To Store
Refrigerating. Store your watermelon fruit salad in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Due to the acidity of the dressing, the fruit will start to soften and eventually get mushy, so it’s best to eat this one up as soon as possible.
If you can, store the prepared fruit separately from the dressing and wait until you’re ready to serve to combine the two. This will give it a little bit longer shelf life.
Watermelon Fruit Salad Recipe
Ingredients
For the Salad:
- 1 cup strawberries, quartered
- 2 cups seedless cubed watermelon
- 1 cup cherries, pitted
- 1 cup raspberries
For the Dressing:
- 1 1/2 tbsp agave syrup
- 1 1/2 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice
- 1 tsp lime zest
- 4-5 whole mint leaves
Instructions
- Slice the whole strawberries into quarters, dice watermelon into bite size pieces (you could also use a melon baller to create rounds if you prefer), and remove cherry pits, leaving the cherries whole.
- Place all of the prepared fruit in a large mixing bowl.
- Place the agave syrup, lime juice, lime zest, and fresh mint leaves in a separate mixing bowl. Use a muddler (or the back of a spoon) to gently pound the mint and zest with the syrup and juice, releasing the flavorful oils.
- Spoon the dressing over the fruit mixture, then gently toss to coat evenly.
- Cover the fruit salad loosely with plastic wrap, then refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving. Toss again just before serving, then garnish with additional mint leaves and serve!
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