Vanilla-macerated fruit salad with cantaloupe granita
Prep time: 25 minsTotal time: 
Vanilla-macerated fruit salad with cantaloupe granita
The ideal thirst-quenching dessert for a hot summer’s day. Macerate the fruit the day before and make the granita up to a week ahead of serving
Prep time: 25 minsTotal time: 
Spencer Lengsfield
Our Senior Food Producer Spencer was born in Los Angeles, so has an inherent love for all things Mexican, Japanese, and Korean but is also heavily influenced by her family’s Louisiana heritage. She loves spice, bright flavours, and fusion food, and she has a soft spot for a chocolate chip cookie.
Spencer Lengsfield
Our Senior Food Producer Spencer was born in Los Angeles, so has an inherent love for all things Mexican, Japanese, and Korean but is also heavily influenced by her family’s Louisiana heritage. She loves spice, bright flavours, and fusion food, and she has a soft spot for a chocolate chip cookie.
Ingredients
For the granita
- ½ cantaloupe melon, rind and seeds removed, roughly chopped
- 25g light brown soft sugar
- juice of ½ lemon
- ½ tbsp vanilla bean paste
For the fruit salad
- ½ cantaloupe melon, rind and seeds removed, cut into small chunks
- 250g strawberries, hulled and quartered lengthways
- 150g blackberries
- 3 tbsp light brown soft sugar
- ½ tbsp vanilla bean paste
Step by step
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For the granita, put the melon in a blender with the sugar, lemon juice, vanilla paste, a pinch of salt and 2 tablespoons of water. Blend until completely smooth. Pour the mixture into a wide, shallow freezer-safe dish or tray. Cover with clingfilm and freeze for 45 minutes. Stir and scrape with a fork, then freeze again. Repeat every 45 minutes for 2½-3 hours in total, until large icy crystals form.
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Meanwhile, for the salad, put the melon chunks in a large bowl, add the strawberries and blackberries,then gently toss with the sugar and vanilla paste. Leave to macerate for about 30 minutes, until a syrup appears at the bottom of the bowl.
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Scrape the granita with a fork one last time (if you’ve made it more than a few hours ahead, leave out at room temperature for 5-10 minutes first). Serve the fruit salad topped with a large spoonful of granita.
