Cardamom-Flavored Fruit Salad (Salatat Al-Fawaakih)

Engrossed's Note:

From: "Classic Vegetarian Cooking from the Middle East & North Africa"-Arabian Gulf. This is the BEST fruit salad my husband or I have ever tried! It's easy, healthy, refreshing and WONDERFUL. You have to like cardamom to really appreciate it though. You may find yourself doubling the sauce in the future because you want to drink it up. I don't repeat very many recipes because there are too many new ones to try but this one is repeated over and over during cantaloupe season. I'm sure it would work with other fruits as well but I like this combo so much I haven't experimented.

• Total Time: 15 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 5 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 1 medium cantaloupe , peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes (2 lbs)
• 2 medium seedless oranges or 2 medium tangerines , peeled sectioned and sections cut in half
• 2 medium apples , peeled cored and cut into 1/2-inch cubes (I use Fuji)
• ½ cup seedless raisin (I use golden)

Sauce

• ½ cup honey
• 2 tablespoons water
• ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
• ¼ cup fresh lemon juice or ¼ cup orange juice

Directions:

1. Sauce: In a small saucepan, combine honey, water and cardamom and bring to a boil, stirring a few times simmer for 2 minutes and remove from heat. Stir in lemon juice and cool completely.
2. When sauce is cooled- toss it together with the fruit and refrigerate until it's ready to be served.
3. Make sure to include some of the sauce with each serving!

Reviews

[Chef #1448328]

This recipe is divine! I don't peel the apples to save time and it's just as good.

[dubaubel]

My son & I made this for his 7th grade World Fair project (he had Saudi Arabia). We didn't use oranges, but instead used pineapple and mangoes. I don't know how authentic that is, but it was delicious!! We made a double batch but I was afraid there would be a lot coming back home as the cardamom is a bit unusual. The kids loved it, hardly any came home.

[UmmBinat]

This is an interesting flavoured salad. I do love cardamom but I felt it was a slightly strange flavour in this. I replaced the cantaloupe with bosc pears, opted for the seedless oranges & used granny smith apples. I suggest grinding your own cardamom though it is tedious. I used the powdered and maybe that is what imparted the slightly strange flavour. I used local honey, spring water & freshly squeezed lemon juice. If I try this again I will grind cardamom seeds after removing them from their green pods.