Completing a buffet menu with fruits and salads should never be too difficult. Guests will surely enjoy the freshness from these foods. One can never go wrong with serving fruit and salad because there are many ingredients and recipes to choose from that can match your menu. Here are a few catering tips to help make the perfect menu with fruit and salad:

• Fruits in season

Serving fruits that are in season is a good choice for two reasons. Guests may truly appreciate a plate of fresh fruits that give them a feel of the weather. Plus, fruits in season are usually cheaper and this can cut down catering expenses. There are also fruits which are good all year round, such as apples, dried apricots, grapes, dried cranberries and bananas.

• Light salad for appetizers

Salads are perfect for appetizers because they are light to eat and not too strong on the taste, they’re just enough to prepare a guest’s taste buds for the rest of the courses. Serving an appetizer could be as easy as tossing green, leafy vegetables together (such as lettuce and spinach) with a few other vegetables (like beans, tomatoes, carrots, cucumber, etc.), and then garnishing it with meat, cheese, nuts or croutons.

To complete the appetizer, salad dressing options can be narrowed down into two: vinaigrette or creamy. Asian menu usually uses vinaigrette dressing, while there is also a wide variety of creamy dressing to choose from, among the famous ones are ranch dressing, Caesar salad dressing, and Thousand Island dressing.

• Side dish salad

Even if salads are meant to be light, these can be incorporated into the main course as a side dish. Most are bound together by a thick sauce like cream. Examples are potato salad, macaroni salad, coleslaw, pasta salad and egg salad. These can be served with different choices of meat.

• Fruit + Salad = Dessert

Ending the courses with both fruit and salad is a union of freshness that will leave guests refreshed after a heavy, hearty meal. It’s as easy as binding small slices of fruits with creamy milk.

Other salads which can also be served for dessert are jelly salad, pistachio salad and cookie salad.

There may be thousands of overwhelming recipes online, and researching or planning for a catering menu is surely not an easy task. To make this less taxing, it is important to keep in mind the theme of the menu when making food choices. Most of all, if the available and preferred ingredients are thought about first – be it seasonal fruits, leafy greens, colorful vegetables or chunks of meat – choosing the perfect catering fruit or salad dish will surely be trouble-free.

Written by bleu events, one of the top caterers Columbia, MO has to offer.