This fruit salad with custard recipe is smooth and creamy, with a luscious vanilla flavour. It is made with a simple mix of fruits and vanilla custard, creating an amazingly delicious treat for summer and throughout the year.

Also, it is a famous dessert during my childhood. At any parties or family gatherings, this is a repeated dessert my Mom used to make and served with jelly. This is one famous Indian dessert with gulab jamun, rasgulla, and halvas.
What is custard?
Custard is a smooth, luscious, creamy dessert. This custard is prepared from ready-made custard powder available in stores. It only requires three ingredients to create this simple yet delectable dessert.
Types of custard
“Three main varieties of custard are baked custard, stirred custard, and steamed custard. The first two are popular in Western cuisine. Today, I’m sharing a recipe for stirred custard using store-bought custard powder. This is a purely Indian dessert recipe.”
What is Custard powder made of?
Main ingredients of vanilla custard powder are cornflour/starch, salt ,colouring agent and natural flavouring agent.
Indian Custard Powder Recipes
I love Indian custard powder as it travelled since childhood. I love incorporating this custard powder into my other recipes, like Vanilla Custard Powder Cookies(Eggless), Vanilla and Chocolate Twin Custard Cookies, and Custard Sandwich Cookies. These cookies are my best-loved recipes by my followers.
Ingredients for fruit salad with custard recipe.
- whole milk
- vanilla custard powder
- sugar
- apple
- mango
- pomegranate
See recipe card for quantities.
Instructions
- Mix custard powder in half cup of milk.
- Stir well until custard powder dissolved completely.
3. In a heavy-bottomed pot or pan, heat milk and sugar over medium heat.
- Wait until the sugar has completely dissolved. Then, gradually add the custard milk while stirring constantly.
5. Stir the custard milk to avoid lumps.
6. The custard milk starts to thicken.
7. After cooking custard milk for 8 to 10 minutes, check the consistency. Dip the spoon or ladle into the custard and strike a line as shown—the perfect line forms. This indicates the perfect consistency of custard.
8. Turn off the heat and allow the custard to cool. At this stage you can add your favourite flavour like vanilla, butterscotch etc.
9. Transfer the cooled custard into a bowl, cover it with a lid, and refrigerate until ready to serve.
10. As the custard is chilled in the refrigerator, it is now ready to be served with Indian fruit salad.
What is Indian fruit salad?
Indian fruit salad is a simple and quick recipe with a combination of Indian seasonal fruits like apples, bananas, mangoes, and pomegranates. These fruits are roughly diced and topped with spices and herbs like Indian chaat masala, lemon juice, and mint leaves and are ready to serve.
For today’s fruit salad with custard recipe, I didn’t add any spices or lemon juice, I simply garnished chopped fruits with fresh mint leaves.
Hint: Always follow the instructions on the specific brand of custard powder you are using, as ratios and cooking times can vary among brands.
Substitutions
- Fruits – instead of using fresh fruits, you can substitute flavoured jelly or nuts such as pistachios and almonds.
- Vegan – use dairy free milk like nut milk or coconut milk.
Variations
- Kid friendly – add shaved dark chocolates or milk chocolates or chocolate sauce to attract kids to birthday parties.
- Fruit compote – adding any fruit compote in place of fresh fruit salad is a fantastic way to add texture to the custard.
- Flavours – even though it’s vanilla custard powder, the flavor will be subtle. Feel free to enhance it with your favorite flavor extracts.
Don’t forget to check out the Condiments page on my blog for additional recipes for sauces and syrups that pairs well with fruit salad and custard.
Storage
If you plan to make custard in advance, store it in an airtight container. It will stay good for up to three days in the fridge. Custards do not freeze well and will lose their texture.
Additionally, you can store cut fruits like mango and pomegranate in a zip pouch or an airtight container. Avoid storing cut apples as they will oxidize within a few minutes, resulting in discoloration.
Here are some inventive ways to incorporate instant custard into your cooking.
- Parfaits
- custard popsicles
- custard tarts
- creamy custard filled cupcakes
- custard trifle
- velvety custard pancakes
- velvety custard filled doughnuts
- custard ice cream etc.
- falooda
Sky is the limit for your creative invention. Do try with your ideas and comment below.
Top tip
When adding the custard mixture to boiling milk, if it forms lumps, there’s no need to worry. Simply switch off the heat and strain the custard milk mixture through a sieve to achieve a silky, smooth custard mixture.
FAQ
Custard is prepared using custard powder, milk, and sugar, and is topped with seasonal fruits for added flavour.
Avoid adding water-content fruits like watermelon, musk melon, and other melons, as it makes custard too watery.
Whisk custard powder and milk well before adding to the remaining boiling milk.
No, avoid adding citrus fruit. It makes custard bitter if left it for sometimes.
Related
Some condiments other recipes you may like to try:
Recipe Card👇
Fruit Salad with Custard Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoon vanilla custard powder
- 4 cup whole milk ( ½ cup whole milk for mixing custard powder)
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 mango
- 1 apple
- 1 pomegranate
- 2 banana
Instructions
- Mix custard powder in half cup of milk.
- Stir well until custard powder dissolved completely.
- In a heavy-bottomed pot or pan, heat milk and sugar over medium heat.
- Wait until the sugar has completely dissolved. Then, gradually add the custard milk while stirring constantly.
- Stir the custard milk to avoid lumps.
- The custard milk starts to thicken.
- After cooking custard milk for 8 to 10 minutes, check the consistency. Dip the spoon or ladle into the custard and strike a line as shown—the perfect line forms. This indicates the perfect consistency of custard.
- Turn off the heat and allow the custard to cool. At this stage you can add your favourite flavour like vanilla, butterscotch etc.
- Transfer the cooled custard into a bowl, cover it with a lid, and refrigerate until ready to serve.
- As the custard is chilled in the refrigerator, it is now ready to be served with Indian fruit salad.
Asokan
Favourite dessert of all time.
Asokan
Favorite dessert of all time.