Grilled Fruit Kabobs with Brown Sugar Dip is the perfect summer dessert- fire up the grill, not the oven, and enjoy sweet summer flavors!
Sweet and fun to make, these Grilled Fruit Kabobs and Brown Sugar Dip are the answer to having a deliciously healthy dessert, without heating your entire house! Packed with all of your favorite seasonal fruit, grilled and dipped in a lightly sweetened dip that only requires three ingredients, these fruit kabobs make summer even more amazing.
Grilled Sweets
Who doesn’t love to find more delicious foods to grill? In the summer, my grill is practically the only thing I use to cook food and I love cooking as many different things on it as I can- Summer only lasts so long! My family knows they’re in for a big treat when I pull out the skewers and a grocery store’s worth of fruit and they certainly line up to help! The skewering is fun and eating the smoky sweet fruit is even better. The warm, caramelized fruit with the chilled sweet and slightly tart Brown Sugar Dip is like a dream combination and no summer is complete without making these Grilled Fruit Kabobs as often as we can!
Other Recipes to Serve with Grilled Fruit Kabobs & Brown Sugar Dip
- Looking for a light dinner to go with those kabobs? Fire up the grill first for this refreshing Grilled Vegetable Pasta Salad– while filling, it is light enough to keep your dessert stomach empty.
- Do you feel like keeping the kabob theme going? These Grilled Veggie Kabobs, smoky veggies with sweet pops of tomatoes, are a huge must-try then.
Ingredients
Fruit: Choose all of your favorite fruit for these kabobs- pineapple, strawberry, bananas, watermelon, and more. You’ll need to cube the fruit or cut it into 1-inch slices.
Brown Sugar Dip: You will need sour cream, brown sugar, and vanilla extract.
Skewers: To make the kabobs you will need skewers. You can choose from wooden skewers (which you will need to soak in the water ahead of time) or metal skewers.
How to Make Grilled Fruit Kabobs & Brown Sugar Dip
STEP ONE: Start by soaking your wooden skewers. Cube or slice the fruit for the kabobs and then skewer the fruit. Remember to alternate the fruit pieces.
STEP TWO: Spray the fruit with cooking spray and grill the kabobs until the fruit is cooked or there are grill marks.
STEP THREE: To make the Brown Sugar Dip, combine the sour cream, brown sugar and vanilla extract and mix well. Remove the fruit from the skewers and dip them into the Brown Sugar Dip for a delicious treat!
Tips for Success
- Any type of skewer can be used for grilling; wooden or metal. Just remember to soak the wooden skewers for 10-20 minutes so that they don’t catch on fire! Check your wooden skewers for splinters as well. If you see any you can cut them off or rub a few skewers together to smooth them. Metal skewers are a good option if you like to kabob food often- they are reusable, generally dishwasher safe and you don’t have to pre-soak them.
- Avoid cubing the fruit into small pieces. Larger pieces of fruit hold up better on the skewer but if you use a grill mat or something similar, then you can absolutely grill smaller fruit, like grapes, without worrying about them falling through the grate.
- You can use a light sour cream for the Brown Sugar Dip or even plain Greek yogurt, both will provide the slightly tart flavor that goes so well with the sweet sugar and the sweet fruit!
What is the best fruit to grill?
These fruit kabobs can be totally personalized to what you like but there are some fruits that are easier to grill than others, such as pineapple, peaches, bananas, and melons. The easy-to-grill fruit is simple to skewer, won’t fall through a grill grate, and maintains its shape while grilling. This means they won’t fall apart and land in the grill flames! Again though, if you use a grill mat or something similar then any fruit you can dream of can be grilled.
What happens when you grill fruit?
There is so much grill magic that happens when you grill fruit! The first is that you weren’t quite sure you were going to like hot, grilled fruit but wait until you taste it! The fruit is so sweet and yet smoky, so there are new flavors that you’ve never had before, and even though you’ve eaten five million strawberries, they’ve never tasted like this! The high heat from grilling also brings out the natural sugars in the fruit quickly and they caramelize, so you get a perfectly sweet piece of fruit that isn’t soft, like a baked apple for example.
Make this the summer of grilled fruit
- Apricot Glazed Grilled Pork Chops
- Grilled Pineapple
- Hawaiian Grilled Salmon Filets
- Grilled Peaches
- Berry Avocado Grilled Chicken Salad
*This post was originally posted on 06/29/2013.
Equipment
Ingredients
Grilled Fruit Kabobs
- Watermelon rind removed
- Cantaloupe rind and seeds removed
- Pineapple rind and core removed
- Nectarines pitted
- Strawberries hulled
- Bananas peel removed
Brown Sugar Dip
- 16 ounces light sour cream
- ¾ cup light brown sugar packed
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Fruit Kabobs
- Place the wooden skewers into a pan of water so they are submerged. Soak for 10 minutes. (This prevents them from catching on fire.) Preheat your grill to medium heat.
- While the skewers soak, cut the fruit into 1-inch pieces and cut the nectarines into slices.
- Skewers the bananas and strawberries together, alternating fruits. Then skewer the watermelon, cantaloupe, pineapple, and nectarines on the other skewers, alternating fruits.
- Spray the kabobs with a little olive oil or non-stick cooking spray. Place on the hot grill and cook until heated through and grill marks form. Remove from the grill and place on a platter.
Brown Sugar Dip
- In a medium bowl, mix together the sour cream, brown sugar, and vanilla until the sugar has dissolved.
- Refrigerate until ready to serve with your fruit for dipping. (I like to make the dip ahead of time so the flavors can marry together.)
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