There was a restaurant near us that we went to all the time for breakfast/brunch. I don’t know why we petered off going. We stopped long before the pandemic. Maybe because there were other places closer? I mean, we had to drive 20 minutes to get there just for brunch when there are a few places we find perfectly acceptable that are less than five minutes away. So, pure laziness?
This place has awesome breakfast skillets. I’m generally not a breakfast person. I usually hop straight to lunch. But they had these great spicy breakfast skillets that were the perfect blend between breakfast and lunch (brunch? duh!). With a dollop of sour cream, salsa, and jalapeños (if they had any!), and I was in heaven.
But, I’m not posting a breakfast skillet today. Although it does make really, really want one now, so I think I need to plan a skillet for the upcoming weeks (stay tuned!). No, today is this delicious tropical salad. WTF does that have to do with this restaurant??? Well, they had a breakfast “appetizer” on their menu for the longest time. I put this in quotes because the idea of an appetizer for breakfast seems totally inane to me, particularly because said “appetizer” always filled you up enough that you didn’t need a main breakfast entree!
Anywho, their “appetizer” was exactly this ~ a tropical salad with delicious cinnamon sugar tortilla chips! And I don’t know why, but it recently popped into my head, and I’ve been craving it like crazy!
Now, most fruit salads I would just roughly chop up the fruit and toss it in a bowl. But, because this is being served with tortilla chips, I diced everything up super small so that it was easy to scoop up the fruit onto the chips. I mean, obviously you can still scoop up large chunks, but the smaller pieces of fruit means that each chip scoop means that you have a nice blend of each fruit added to the salad!
Okay, so this is kind of weird. Making a fruit salad with fresh fruit is obviously “fresh” tasting. But, I added freshly minced mint, lime zest, and lime juice, and that just takes this to a whole new level of fresh! I don’t know how to even explain it without you just making it and trying it yourself. The fresh fruit just tastes fresher, lighter, and like a dip full of summer with each bite!
The chips are nothing extraordinary, per se. They’re super easy to make. I just tossed them with melted coconut oil before then tossing them with cinnamon sugar. You could easily swap the coconut oil out with butter, but I like the many health benefits that coconut oil provides you (that butter DOES NOT)! I also think it has a really nice flavor profile for something sweet like this. So, I highly encourage you to buy and use coconut oil over butter for this recipe!
The chips cook in the oven in about 8 minutes and will finish crisping up as they dry. Then, once they cool enough to handle, dig in! This fruit salad is absolutely delicious on its own too! The calorie calculation is for about 4 chips per cup of fruit, give or take. If you skip the chips, one cup of fruit salad is less than 100 calories! Score! I personally love this as a dessert to satiate me for the rest of the night. And, it’s so healthful, it leaves me feeling really good and positive that I ate something so packed in vitamins and antioxidants rather than my other low calorie snacks like low-fat Babybel cheese or a hard boiled egg.
Finely dicing the fruit is time intensive and can be tedious. I like to throw on my favorite podcast or one of my favorite Pandora stations and just be zen with all the chopping! And, just know, this is totally worth it and lasts for quite a few days, depending on how many people are eating it, of course!
Enjoy!
Zesty Tropical Fruit Salad “Pico de Gallo” with Cinnamon Sugar Tortilla Chips
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 8 minutes
- Total Time: 53 minutes
- Yield: ~15 servings
- Category: Breakfast, Dessert, Snack
Ingredients
Fruit Salad
1 fresh pineapple ~ sides, crown, bottom, and core removed and diced into small pieces
2 fresh mangos ~ peeled and cut around the pit and diced into small pieces
4 kiwis ~ peeled and diced into small pieces
3 large bananas ~ peeled and diced into small pieces
8 oz raspberries ~ quartered
16 oz strawberries ~ diced into small pieces
1 – 15 oz can mandarin oranges ~ ¼ cup juice reserved & oranges diced into small pieces
2 limes ~ zested & juiced
3 TBs fresh mint, minced
Cinnamon Sugar Tortilla Chips
8 – 6” flour tortillas ~ cut into sixths
¼ cup coconut oil, melted & cooled slightly
⅓ cup white granulated sugar
⅓ cup brown sugar
1½ TBs ground cinnamon
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
In a large bowl, toss together the fruit with the lime juice, lime zest, and fresh mint.
In a medium bowl, add the tortilla pieces. Drizzle the coconut oil over the tortilla pieces, and, using your hands, mix, separating the tortilla pieces until all of the pieces are coated on both sides with the oil.
In a small bowl, whisk together the sugar, brown, sugar, and ground cinnamon. Sprinkle over the tortilla pieces and toss. Use your hands to thoroughly mix and fully cover each tortilla piece in the mix.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats. Evenly spread the tortilla pieces out amongst the two baking sheets. Bake one at a time for about 8 minutes ~ they will continue to crisp up as they cool.
Allow the tortilla chips to cool slightly before serving with the fruit.
Enjoy!
Keywords: fruit salad, tropical fruit salad, how to make a tropical fruit salad, fresh fruit salad, fresh tropical fruit salad, cinnamon sugar chips, cinnamon sugar tortilla chips, cinnamon sugar tortilla nachos
