Fruit Salsa with Baked Cinnamon Tortilla Chips
Refreshing and so delicious, this sweet and tangy fruit salsa with baked cinnamon tortilla chips is super easy to whip up for a perfect snack or appetizer!
I can’t even tell you why it has taken me so long to fall in love with fruit salsa. Maybe it’s because I’m a true blue through and through lover of spicy salsa-and-chips kind of salsa? I can’t get enough. And apparently my heart doesn’t make room for salsa variations as often as it should.
But wow. Wow! Fruit salsa is amazing. We can’t stop with this stuff. Besides a little chopping, it comes together fast. And even those homemade baked cinnamon tortilla chips are speedy (and whoa, super yum).
What Fruit is best for fruit salsa?
The premise behind fruit salsa isn’t complicated. Throw a bunch of small-diced fruit in a bowl and whisk up a 2-ingredient “dressing” to pull all the flavors together.
I like to choose a combination of crunchy, tangy fruits as well as soft, sweet fruits. Flavor! Texture!
- apples (I prefer Honeycrisp or Pink Lady or Granny Smith)
- strawberries
- kiwis
- peaches or nectarines
- blueberries
- mangos
The list really could go on and on. Except for bananas. Just, ew. Not in this recipe. I love me a banana in the right time and season, but in this fruit salsa recipe, they’ll ruin the whole thing with their tendency toward gloppy brown mushiness. Just say not to bananas in fruit salads forevermore.
Let’s talk about jam
The simple dressing in this fruit salsa recipe is two easy ingredients: jam and orange juice. Or lemon juice if you want it extra zippy.
I really think if you choose a jam you love the flavor of, it’ll work here. I’ve made this with strawberry, red raspberry, black raspberry jam and even apricot. Each one brings something a little yummy and special to the fruit salsa table. Obviously, the darker the jam, the darker the fruit salsa will look after mixing.
For the juice, I highly recommend freshly squeezing the juicy guts out of an orange or lemon vs squeezing the juice out of a bottle. The flavor will be bright and refreshing! If your jam is low-sugar or more tangy than sweet, you might want to dial down the orange or lemon juice.
Bake-Your-Own Cinnamon Tortilla Chips
I’d like to insist that those quickly baked cinnamon tortilla chips are non-negotiable. The combo of the crisp, sweet cinnamon crisp dipped in the juicy, sweet salsa is tremendous. So, so delicious!
However, I do have to admit after lots of, ahem, taste-testing that this fruit salsa is crazy delicious on its own. Like a good old-fashioned fruit salad. After the cinnamon and sugar tortilla tips were long gone (a few of my snacky kids went to town on the stack of “chips” when I wasn’t looking), I couldn’t stop digging into the remaining fruit salsa with a spoon.
The fruit flavors with that simple jam + citrus dressing are irresistible! This fruit salsa is perfect for a snack or simple appetizer, and it would be amazing at a party or bridal/baby shower type situation. Yum!
One Year Ago: One Pot Creamy Tomato Basil Pasta
Two Years Ago: Baked Parmesan Spaghetti Squash Fritters
Three Years Ago: Cookies and Cream Chocolate Chip Cookies
Four Years Ago: Fluffy Zucchini Cornbread
Five Years Ago: My Mom’s Famous Calico Baked Beans
Six Years Ago: Overnight Oatmeal Cinnamon Pancakes
Seven Years Ago: Homemade Chocolate Syrup for Chocolate Milk
Eight Years Ago: Buttermilk Lime Shortbread Bars
Fruit Salsa with Baked Cinnamon Tortilla Chips
Ingredients
Fruit Salsa (see note below for fruit variations):
- 1 cup small diced Granny Smith, Honeycrisp or Pink Lady apples (about 2 medium or 1 large)
- 1 cup small diced kiwi fruits, about 2-3 kiwis
- 1 cup small diced strawberries
- 1 cup small diced peaches or nectarines, about 1 large peach/nectarine
- 2 tablespoons jam (see note)
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange or lemon juice (see note)
Cinnamon Tortilla Chips:
- 5-8 flour tortillas, I use the 8-inch size
- Butter
- Cinnamon and sugar
Instructions
- For the fruit salsa: Combine the chopped fruit in a serving bowl.
- In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together the jam and orange or lemon juice until combined. Pour the mixture over the fruit and stir to evenly coat the fruit.
- Serve immediately (although it tastes better if it sits in the refrigerator for an hour or so).
- For the baked cinnamon tortilla chips: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheet(s) with parchment paper.
- Butter one side of each tortilla with about a teaspoon of butter and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar all the way to the edges. Stack three or so tortillas on top of each other and cut the stack into 8 triangles with a pizza cutter or knife. Repeat with remaining tortillas.
- Place the tortilla triangles cinnamon side up in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet(s) and bake for 10-15 minutes until golden. Let cool. Serve alongside the fruit salsa.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: adapted just a little from a recipe sent to me by a reader, Lisa M. (thanks, Lisa!)
Please include nutritional information with your recipes!
I’m adding nutritional information over the next couple of weeks – should see it start to appear on recipes on a slow rollout as I update them one by one.
I know the salsa can’t be canned, but do you think this could be frozen and thawed out later?
I think the fruit might have a tendency to get a bit mushy if frozen and then thawed, but you could try it and see!
How do you think corn tortillas would be in this recipe? I have to eat gluten free. Thanks
I think they could work, especially if you like the taste of corn tortillas already.
Can this recipe be made day ahead? I am using strawberries, kiwi, peaches and apples.
Thanks.
Sometimes the colors of the fruit will seep into each other and it makes it a tiny bit less pretty, but you could still try making it ahead.
Do you think you could use frozen blueberries or would it turn into mush?
I think it would definitely be much softer – I probably wouldn’t recommend it just for the texture.
This is sooo good and leftover salsa is delicious mixed into yogurt or cottage cheese. Thanks for another great recipe!
Thanks, Lauren!
Made this this morning for my Mom’s 83rd birthday brunch today-it was a hit! My nephew’s girlfriend even asked for the recipe and with them only being in their early 20’s, I took that as high praise : l
Thanks, Mel
Haha, I agree! That IS high praise! Thanks, Diane! And happy birthday to your mom!
Love all of your recipes 🙂 do you have any tips on quick and easy meal prep. I know there are tons of meal prep ides out there, but usually recipes on any site other than yours are more miss than hit for me. I would love to see what you would come up with for an easy grab and go meal that can be made in bulk. Just a thought. Thank you for all your help in the kitchen thus far and in advance!!
Great idea! I actually have a post coming up with a great grab-and-go meal idea…I’ll see if I can put some more thoughts together!
Yum! Fruit salsa is also really good with cinnamon sugar pita chips!
Loved this! It’s super delicious!
Thank you!
I LOVE fruit salsa. I don’t love the amount of time it takes! Maybe I just need to be better at chopping? But even the chips take ~2 hours for me. I used to make a double batch every 4 of July but I haven’t in years. This might have me reconsidering!
I agree that chopping all the fruit takes a long time. I really like using a Chop Wizard–it goes much faster!
Yum! I need to try this asap! It looks amazing!
Paige
These are sooooo good!! I could eat this all day:)
I don’t use fruits a lot in recipes :S which should you peel (kiwis obviously) and which do you not have to peel for this?
Hi Kendra, I don’t peel any of the fruits except the kiwi (I leave the peels on the peaches, nectarines, and apples).
I had a similar recipe to this that I used to make a few years ago, every year when I would make strawberry freezer jam. Unfortunately, in recent years, strawberries have become so much more expensive and not as readily available, so I really slowed down on my strawberry jam making and my fruit salsa making. Just last week I was making taco meat and my son asked if I would make the taco bowls (found here on your site) that bake around canning jars– (we hadn’t made them in ages) so I obliged and as I was making those he remembered about “crustos” (what we call the cinnamon chips you’ve posted in this recipe.) So I obliged on that too! It made me wonder– WHY I haven’t been doing the taco bowls AND the Crustos and even more than that it made me CRAVE fruit salsa!! Your timing couldn’t be any better !! I can’t wait to bring this back to my life with your recipe!! Hopefully I can find some good strawberries somewhere 🙂 Thanks Mel you have perfect timing 🙂
Crustos! I love it!
Can you use frozen fruit for any of these?
I think the texture would be too soft.
Oooh, I love it when I beat the email to a new recipe! This looks fantastic and like a perfect after school snack to sparkle up the transition back to school. Cinnamon sugar tortilla crisps- yum!
Any new thoughts you’d care to share about school lunch and/or the transition to school year sports mania? I’ve loved your past school lunch sanity-saving posts! I’m always interested in more transportable snack ideas- especially to help with refueling for after school sports. Hope you’re enjoying the tail end of summer and thanks for all the great ideas!
Thanks, Rebecca! I actually have a post going up on Thursday about some back to school sanity savers…but it’s mostly a compilation of all the posts I’ve done over the years and not a lot of new info. HOWEVER, over the next couple weeks I’ll be posting each week with a new list of recipes to focus on a specific area (weekday breakfasts, easy dinners, etc) – I’ll try to do some work on getting more portable snack recipes/ideas up and going!