This Pantry Ingredient Will Help Your Fruit Salad Taste Better and Stay Fresher Longer

Memorial Day is almost here, which means so is the unofficial start of summer. Among the array of Memorial Day barbecue and potluck foods, fruit salad often makes an appearance, offering a refreshing burst of sweet and juicy flavor and adding a pop of color to the table. As long as you've picked an array of ripe seasonal fruit, you're well on your way to a good fruit salad. But what if we told you there was a way to level up fruit salad with one simple addition? The secret lies in a pantry staple: instant vanilla pudding.

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We're big fans of instant vanilla pudding for many reasons. Without it, we'd wouldn't have banana pudding, chocolate pudding, Jello-salads and fluffy cookies. Instant pudding mix in the context of a fruit salad may seem like an odd addition but the merits of the ingredient create a restaurant-worthy fruit salad. Here's how to do it.

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Why You Should Add Instant Pudding to Fruit Salad

• It helps keep fruit salad fresh. Once it's tossed together with the fruit, instant vanilla pudding combines with the fruit juices to create a lightly creamy coating. This not only dresses the fruit salad but it also prevents the fruit pieces from turning soggy too quickly.

• It enhances the fruit's natural flavor. The subtle vanilla flavor of instant pudding mix complements a wide variety of summer fruits—tart berries, tropical pineapple, juicy peaches and sweet melon. The creamy-fruity combo is a subtle upgrade, but one your guests will notice.

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How to Add Instant Pudding to Fruit Salad

Here's the recipe, if you can even call it that. Make a bowl of your favorite fruit salad, sprinkle with a teaspoon of instant vanilla pudding (such as Jell-O vanilla instant pudding mix), then mix to evenly combine. If you have a large bowl of fruit salad, add a little bit more. That's it!

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