12 Summer Fruit Recipes, From Simple Salads to No-Bake Desserts

If you’ve been living life in the fruit-as-a-snack lane, it’s time to change your tune. Juicy cherries, stone fruit, mangoes, and late-season pears and apples are ripe for experimentation in sweet and savoury recipes. Good news: we’ve got a bunch of them right here, courtesy of top chefs including Ixta Belfrage, Kay-Lene Tan and Sami Tamimi. Getting your two serves of fruit per day will be a cinch.

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Alice Zaslavsky’s peach salad with burrata and green peppercorns

Alice Zaslavsky delivers a summer fruit salad – but not as you know it. Ripe peaches are grilled on the barbeque, becoming perfectly caramelised counterparts to rich, creamy burrata. Fresh mint and chives meet a green peppercorn vinaigrette for a zippy finish. Sub in nectarines or plums if that’s what you’ve got on hand.

Rocker’s burrata and charred apricot jam on sourdough 

Another stone-fruit-meets-cheese hit. Once you’ve made the charred apricot jam, it’s just about acquiring fresh bread and cheese to accompany it – the recipe calls for sourdough and burrata, but you could sub for baguette and stracciatella or ciabatta and goat’s cheese. 

Botanica’s roasted pear and whipped feta salad 

A roasted pear and whipped feta salad in which crunchy croutons and roasted almonds bring texture to the table. Cucumber and mint balance the flavour profile, making it a great meal on its own or served with barbequed meats.

Nabula El Mourid’s prawn and mango noodle salad

The Supermarket Swap founder’s debut cookbook, The Weekly Grocery Shop, is all about getting the most out of your supermarket trips. With clever planning and prep, this zingy salad is one of many possibilities.

Meera Sodha’s sticky mango and lime paneer naans

If you’ve got 30 minutes to spare, you’ve got time to make these high-octane paneer-stuffed naans. It’s one of those recipes makes for an unexpected, fun dish to serve your dinner-party guests, or simply to dig into after work one evening. 

Ixta Belfrage’s chicken, pineapple and ’nduja bake 

A little heat, a little sweetness and almost no effort – this dish is a certified summer hit. Chicken pieces are coated in a spicy ’nduja and chipotle paste, while tangerine (or orange) juice and fresh pineapple deliver a sweet and tangy finish. 

Michael and Pippa James’s cherry and rye pie 

A rustic pie to make the most of the post-Christmas cherry surplus. But if fresh cherries aren’t an option, frozen pitted cherries can be used instead. Serve the crumbly pie with clotted cream, vanilla ice-cream or mascarpone.

Elizabeth Hewson’s no-bake peaches and cream tart

A no-bake dessert is an instant summer favourite. Here, Elizabeth Hewson lets ripe peaches and a whipped cream and mascarpone filling do the talking. You can skip the digestive-biscuit base altogether if you want to stay cool on hot nights.

Sami Tamimi’s sumac-spiked plums

The Ottolenghi collaborator’s fragrant dessert will fill your kitchen with comforting aromas. Double the plums when you cook, and future you will be grateful. “Have some of the leftovers for breakfast with yoghurt, or on warm toast spread with labneh or cream cheese,” Tamimi suggests.

Al Brown’s passionfruit lamingtons

A tropical take on an afternoon-tea classic, these zesty, yellow baked treats give traditional chocolate or raspberry flavours a run for their money.  Hot tip: if you’re short on passionfruit juice, you can get away with a splash of orange juice.

Kay-Lene Tan’s versatile cobbler

Easier and more forgiving than baking a pie, this biscuit-topped cobbler is more akin to a crumble. The great thing about this recipe is its versatility: use berries or stone fruit in the height of summer or choose pears and apples when they’re at peak season.

Benjamina Ebeuhi’s lemon tart with basil cream

This lemon tart is a fresh take on a familiar classic. You can make the lemon filling up to two days ahead and store in an airtight container in the fridge to help with prep. If you’re really pressed for time, you can load up a premade pastry shell with the citrusy filling and chilled basil cream.