Sunshine in a Bowl

Reading Time: 3 minutes

I feel so blessed to have access to wonderful tropical fruits while living in South East Asia. This fruit salad recipe is one of my favorite combinations to make use of the delicious bounty of sweet juicy goodness.

I like to call this fruit salad “sunshine in a bowl” because the vibrant yellow and orange colors always make me feel happy. It’s a wonderful breakfast and a great way to start your day.

For best results make sure your fruit is perfectly ripe and sweet. In Thailand and Malaysia, we have had some amazing baby pineapples that are the sweetest I have ever tasted in my life! Plus as a bonus, you can buy them without the skin, which helps if you are not accomplished at peeling pineapples. In Thailand, they all seem to be experts at removing the skin with the least possible waste of fruit.

Pineapples are something you really need to be careful with because they often tend to be picked too early. This causes very high acid levels which are often the cause of teeth problems on the raw food diet. Personally I experienced a lot of damage to the enamel of my teeth from eating acidic pineapples in Bali when I first started eating a high-fruit diet.

If you can’t find a sweet pineapple I recommend you leave it out and simply replace it with extra mango or papaya. However, if you are lucky to access a good one, pineapple is a fantastic food for cleansing due to its high enzyme content, including bromelain, which has an anti-inflammatory effect.

The orange fruits are a reliable source of beta-carotene and this dish also provides 400mg of vitamin C, which is five times the recommended minimum intake. Of course, most of us know that we function best with a much higher intake of vitamin C than what is generally advised, which is one reason why fruits are so important in our diet.

This fruit salad is delicious without the coconut flakes but they do add an interesting textural element. Plus the combination of coconut with the pineapple and mango really adds to the tropical feel. If you are on a strict phase of your raw detox diet plan you can still enjoy the low-fat combination of these fruits by leaving out the coconut. I also often enjoy this fruit salad without the banana, which I find much a little bit lighter and easier to digest.

The bee pollen is completely optional but I like how it adds a little extra crunch while also gently dissolving into the orange juice to boost up the flavor of all the other fruits.

I have no doubts that this fruit salad will brighten up your day and bring the tropics to you, no matter where you are in the world.

Can you get good quality tropical fruits at your location? I’d love to hear about your favorite fruit salad combinations in the comments section below.