Juicy grapes, crunchy apples, sweet pears, and crunchy pecans (if you like), all tossed with a creamy, cinnamon-y, slightly tangy dressing … that’s this magical Fall Fruit Salad recipe.
I love this fruit salad any time of year, to be honest, but find it’s the perfect Thanksgiving fruit salad – and I also just like it all Autumn long. The colors of Autumn Fruit Salad with apples, pears, grapes, & pecans are what really draw me in … vibrant, harvest tones.

In this article
- The Story Behind the Recipe
- Fall Fruit Salad Ingredients
- What to Serve with Fall Fruit Salad
- More Fall & Fruit Salad Recipes
The Story Behind the Recipe
It’s fall! I’ve embraced cozy sweaters, the fact that we’ve had to turn our thermostat back on, and fall produce. Pumpkins! Squash! Crisp right-off-the-tree apples! Oh, happy day.

This fall fruit salad came to be a couple of weeks ago when an awesome neighbor bought a couple of 40 pound boxes (!!) of honeycrisp apples and divvied it up amongst several of us.
The next morning, I peered at the happy-making bowl of honeycrisps gracing our kitchen counter and I decided that a reverse of my usual breakfast – yogurt with fruit on top – was in order.
So I made this fruit salad for the first time – with honeycrisps, some ripe pears, and a few plums I had on hand, and a dressing made with Greek yogurt. Yum.
The dressing came together flawlessly the first time I took a stab at it (I love it when that happens!) – a little of this, a little of that, perfect!
Fall Fruit Salad Ingredients
The fruit, I ended up tinkering with a bit to end up with this final result. I decided I favor red grapes over plums; crisp pears work better than softer varieties – and if you can’t find great pears for this salad, you’re better off leaving them out and throwing in extra apples and grapes.
We’ve got:
- Bartlett pears
- Honeycrisp apples
- Red grapes
And then for the Cinnamon Greek Yogurt Dressing (but it’s versatile if you need a dairy-free version – see the recipe for notes!) we have:
- Greek yogurt
- Zest & juice of a lemon
- Pure vanilla extract
- Pure maple syrup or honey
- Cinnamon & nutmeg
And then to top it all, if you like a bit of crunch atop your fall fruit salad, go for some:
- Chopped pecans
(But it’s perfectly delicious without any nuts, too).

What to Serve with Fall Fruit Salad
If you’re looking for a Thanksgiving fruit salad, this would be absolutely perfect. Perhaps the vegan version served up with this Thanksgiving menu?
I love to pass this fall fruit salad along with fat stacks of these pumpkin pancakes for the perfect fall breakfast. Or for a heartier breakfast, perhaps a breakfast casserole + fruit salad situation could be a winner? Here’s a meaty breakfast casserole to check out, or perhaps one with mushrooms and Swiss cheese?

More Fall & Fruit Salad Recipes
- Looking for a green salad instead? This Simple Fall Green Salad with Honeycrisp Apples & Pecans has you covered.
- This Kale Salad with Almonds has an irresistible lemony garlic dressing. A fave all season!
- Here’s a fruit salad for another season – summer! I love the lemon poppyseed dressing.

Fall Fruit Salad
Ingredients
- 2 medium Bartlett pears (or other ripe but firm pears, diced)
- 2 medium apples (a fresh, crisp variety like honeycrisp, cripps, or pink lady is best, diced)
- 1 cup red grapes (halved)
- 1/3 cup Greek yogurt (can substitute your favorite plain or vanilla non-dairy yogurt – see notes)
- 2 teaspoons freshly grated lemon zest (from 1 medium lemon)
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (from the zested lemon)
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup (can substitute honey)
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoons ground nutmeg
- 1/3 cup pecans* (chopped)
Instructions
- Place pears, apples, and grapes in a large bowl. Toss gently to combine. Set aside.
- To a small bowl, add the yogurt, lemon zest, lemon juice, maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Use a wire whisk to blend well.
- Drizzle dressing over the fruit. Toss gently until fruit is coated. Scoop into bowls and sprinkle with pecans. Serve immediately.
Hi Kare! Â This is such a simple and refreshing combination. The lemon zest just brightens it all up! And although fall has blown in, aren’t the cozy sweaters, pears and fresh apples the best!? Â Thank you for your delightful recipe!
Our spring seemed to come in an instant too! The seasonal swap sure was quick this year!
I love the idea of an autumn fruit salad with spiced yoghurt dressing! All those delicious flavours – yum, yum!
Also, I already have my Halloween costume too, and my Dad has been making Halloween decorations for the house since Christmas 2013 was over. So, we are one of those families too 🙂Â
I made this last night, and it was really good. I used regular plain yogurt, because I didn’t have Greek yogurt on hand. I drizzled about 2 Tbsp of the dressing onto the fruit and it coated perfectly — just a touch of flavor to accent crisp fruit. I will be making this again!
I teach kids how to cook and we used this recipe. I did it at four different schools and the kids loved it. Thanks!Â
(Minus the pecans because we can’t have nuts in schools)Â
Just made this tonight and it was wonderful! Thank you. Pinning!
Has anyone calculated the calories per serving? Â I would love to know.
I love using this tool for calorie calculation: http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php
Which flavor of greek yogurt do you use-plain? This looks SO good!
Yes, plain. If you have a sweetened version, just use (way) less sweetener to taste. 🙂
I recently made this (actually made way too much)! After it had sat in the fridge for a few days, it got a little watery, as you said it would. So I through it in the blender, added a little more Greek yogurt and ice, and had a really awesome smoothie for dinner!
I LOVE this idea! 🙂
I’ve been looking for a fall fruit combo to serve at a ladies brunch in a few weeks.Even though I Â haen’t made it, I know it will be perfect!! Thanks for sharing!!
Wow!! Of all the fall/Autumn Fruit Salad recipes online, my daughter and I thought this one looked and sounded best. My 11 year old daughter is always throwing things together for a delicious treat for our family. We are definitely excited to try this one! Thank you for sharing!!!
We were surprised last evening when our daughter served up this incredibly simple, yet, amazing fruit salad. The flavones rang true and sang to us. Great starter or Snack ! A Diabetic Dream Dish.
Thank you very much for sharing.
I’m so glad you liked it! 😀
Thank you for the wonderful recipe. I made it yesterday for a luncheon for 60 ladies and received rave reviews! I multiplied everything in the dressing by 8, and we had more than enough.
I made this salad for a halloween breakfast with some friends and it got rave reviews from everyone. The dressing was excellent. Perfect for fall!!!!!
Just made this for a breakfast for 30 guests today. They all enjoyed it very much and kept asking me the ingredients! I’ll definitely make it again.
Could you use whipped cream instead of yogurt?
I haven’t tried it, but it would probably be delicious. If you try it, please report back!
This is amazing! It tastes like… fall. In a good way. Thanks for the recipe 🙂
Thanks for the review, Eric! I’m so glad you like it.
We enjoyed this salad but for us the grapes being the only soft textured fruit seemed to be out of place. Concorde pears and Fuji apples were on sale so that is what I used to make the salad along with the pecans and honey for the dressing. With all our favorite ingredients in the dressing we loved it drizzled over the chilled fruit. Topped with chopped pecans and served. Very easy to put together and delicious! Made and reviewed for the Alphabet Tag Game.
A 40# box of HC apples? REALLY? Five years later, and I’m still green with envy! Nah, I’m happy for you. I had fresh blueberries this past summer, and I’m pretty sure I made at least 23 crumbles…or were they crisps? Well anyway… Recently, I made a similar salad to this, and it was incredible! I even added avocado and lime zest to it. Now, I’m adding lime zest to just about anything; I find that it adds another layer of sweet complexity to food. I’m very eager to try this recipe. I’ll let you know how awesome it turns out!! Happy Valentine’s!
Haha, one benefit to living in Washington State, I guess! Now I would LOVE to have enough blueberries for 23 crumbles. Yum! Love the idea of lime zest in this salad – I might even have to try avocado! 🙂 (So sorry I am late to replying to this; I just found a bunch of old comments hiding in my queue! Eek! Cheers to you!)
Omgsh that’s too funny! Well, better late than never. My significant other’s mom has blueberry “trees”. They’re 12 feet high easily. We also have wild dewberries that grow in south Louisiana. They’re like blackberries, but “tangy-er”. So delicious and so fun to pick.
I swear I turned green with envy at the mention of blueberry trees. And those dewberries sound incredible!
Big hit at Thanksgiving – brought to family dinner. Â We added strawberries and blueberries, apple, red grapes, raspberries. Â Thank you!
Wonderful! I’m so glad it went over well. Love your additions. Thanks so much for coming back to leave a review – it means a lot! Happy holidays!
 I made this for Thanksgiving and it was a hit! Common ingredients meant there was really nothing picky eaters could complain about. The lemon  keeps the fruit fresh, so next day leftovers were just as good as for Thanksgiving dinner.Â
I’m so glad you liked this one! Thank you for sharing. Happy holidays!
I had this at a bookclub gathering last night and everyone loved it! Can’t wait to make some soon with the wonderful fall fruits!!
Oh goodness! Â YUM!!! Â I made this for a family brunch. Everyone LOVED it! Â Many asked for the recipe! Â Will see this OFTEN on our table!!! Thank you!
Let’s find a nice river shore where has red trees because this recipe just lacks some leaves. This Autumn fruit salad with cinnamon greek yogurt dressing is ideal for a picnic in this season. It includes all fruits I like.
Absolutely fantastic
The dressing is awesome. I was missing some of the fruits, so had to improvised, still ended up with a delicious salad. 🙂
A friend brought this for book group. Such a refreshing and delicious salad!