Maple Cinnamon Fruit Salad

This delicious maple cinnamon fruit salad combines fruit with a sweet, spicy maple-cinnamon dressing and a tangy sour cream topping.

When you saw this recipe, you were probably thinking: “Who needs a recipe for fruit salad? Isn’t it just a bunch of fruit mixed together?” You are correct if you are referring to most (boring) fruit salads. This recipe, however, will change your mind forever about fruit salads. In addition to containing healthy fruit, this maple cinnamon fruit salad is perfect for a healthy breakfast because it only contains natural sweeteners. Once you taste the flavors of orange, cinnamon, and maple, mixed with tangy sour cream, this will become one of your new favorite breakfast recipes.

For the fruit, I used granny smith apples, bosc pears, blueberries, and mandarin oranges. Here is a quick breakdown of why I used these varieties of fruit:

Granny Smith Apples: In addition to the tangy flavor that these apples bring to the fruit mix, they boast a wide range of nutritional benefits. Granny Smith Apples contain high amounts of fiber and antioxidants which are critical for healthy digestion and immune support. Additionally, they contain high levels of vitamin C and water, which can help combat chronic inflammation.

Bosc Pears: These pears bring a unique flavor profile to the recipe. They are sweet, crunchy, juicy, and bring a bit of a woodsy spice flavor to the salad.  Additionally, these pears are high in healthy carbohydrates, so they are perfect to start your day off with. In fact, they provide twice the amount of carbohydrates that a slice of bread contains. Unlike bread, however, these carbohydrates are not processed.

Blueberries: These berries bring a unique texture and a slightly sweet flavor with a bit of acid to the mix. In addition, these berries are nutritional powerhouses. According to Medical News Today, blueberries maintain healthy bones, promote skin health, lowers blood pressure, helps manage diabetes, protect against heart disease, and prevents cancer. In summary, anyone will benefit from eating blueberries.

Mandarin Oranges: These oranges pack a punch of flavor in their tiny body. With their sweet, juicy, citrusy flavor, they are perfect for a fruit salad. They are also high in both vitamin A and C which are important for immune system support.

Maple Syrup: This ingredient brings an amazing sweet caramel-like taste to the salad. It really ties all the different fruit flavors together. Although it is high in sugar, it contains minerals such as calcium, potassium, and iron, unlike refined sugar. Additionally, maple syrup is lower on the glycemic index than cane sugar which means that it raises your blood sugar slower than cane sugar.

Cinnamon Essential Oil: This ingredient brings a warm spicy flavor to the dressing which complements the maple syrup perfectly. The essential oil brings a cinnamon flavor that is extremely hard to match with powdered cinnamon (If you do not have the essential oil, you can use powdered cinnamon). Additionally, the cinnamon essential oil has many health benefits which include supporting healthy metabolic function and immune system. However, as a word of caution, be sure to buy a good quality essential oil. Low quality, adulterated oils can cause serious harm. I use doTerra essential oils because their quality and scientific testing are unmatched by anyone else in the industry. (You can buy them here.)

Orange juice: Added together with the maple syrup and cinnamon, the orange juice brings the perfect balance of citrus and spice to the dressing.

Sour Cream: Instead of whipped cream, I chose to mix sour cream with maple syrup for the topping. Although this topping is unique, I found that I liked it even better than whipped cream on the salad (it has way more flavor than the cream).

Preparing this recipe is extremely quick and easy. It is quick enough for a simple family breakfast in the morning, but delicious enough for a fancy brunch.

The first step is to chop up the fruit. I like to chop it into bite-sized pieces, but it is up to you to decide what size to cut it into.

After chopping up the fruit, whisk together the maple syrup, orange juice, and cinnamon oil for the dressing. If you are using doTerra cinnamon oil, one drop is all you need because it is extremely potent.

For the topping, mix the sour cream with a tablespoon or two of maple syrup.

Finally, mix the fruit with the dressing, serve into bowls, put a spoonful of the topping on top, and you are finished!

Note: Feel free to change the fruit out depending on the season or your taste.

Print Recipe

Maple Cinnamon Fruit Salad

This delicious maple cinnamon fruit salad combines fruit with a sweet, spicy maple-cinnamon dressing and a tangy sour cream topping.

Prep Time20 mins

Cook Time0 mins

Total Time20 mins

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Cinnamon, essential oil, Fruit, Maple, orange, sourcream, spicy, sweet, tangy

Servings: 6

Author: TheCulinaryTwins

Equipment

• knife
• measuring spoons
• whisk

Ingredients

Fruit

• 1 cup blueberries
• 2 bosc pears
• 1 granny smith apple
• 2 mandarin oranges

Topping

• ½ cup sour cream
• 1-2 tbsp maple syrup

Dressing

• ⅓ cup maple syrup
• ¼ cup orange juice
• 1 drop cinnamon essential oil I use doTerra essential oils, you can also used powdered cinnamon

Instructions

• Rinse fruit.
• Chop fruit into bite-sized pieces.
• Whisk together maple syrup, orange juice, and cinnamon essential oil.
• Mix sour cream with maple syrup.
• Toss fruit with dressing.
• Serve into bowls.
• Put a spoonful of topping on top.

Notes

Note: Feel free to change the fruit out depending on the season or your taste.