How To Make Pineapple Salsa

Pineapple Salsa is a great side to serve with robust meals as the sweet acid can cut through and enhance some fairly strong flavors. This is great with Molés, Seafood, Stuffed Peppers, BBQ Pork and so many other dishes as well as in a taco bar or as a chip dip. We have made this salsa in Hawaii and Mexico where the pineapples are fresh and also right here at home in Northern Californian where all the pineapples are imported.

This recipe is naturally gluten free

We love making this salsa as it’s a great opportunity to practice our knife skills. Our objective is to get most of the ingredients diced up into the same size pieces. You will notice that the serranos and cilantro are chopped up much smaller than the pineapple, tomatoes and onions that make up the bulk of this salsa.

Watch a Video

Here is a video of 2 Cooks in the Kitchen making Pineapple Salsa on the Big Island of Hawaii:

Dice the Pineapple

We will begin with dicing our pineapple. With any luck you are starting with a whole, fresh, ripe pineapple. If for some reason you have to use canned pineapple, rinse it well to get the syrupy stuff off and then dice it as best you can. In all our years we have never had to use anything other than fresh pineapple for this salsa and we have had the opportunity to make it with fresh Hawaiian and Mexican pineapple, which is the best.

Cut Off the Ends and the Peel

We start by cutting both ends off the pineapple and then cut the peel off top to bottom. You will cut away some of the fruit but the trick here is to lose as little fruit as possible to the skin.

Remove the Pips

Once you have the peel off the pineapple, you still have a lot of inedible pips all over the fruit. The way to deal with these is to cut them out with a ‘v’ cut diagonally down the pineapple. Cut them from one side and then the other and they come right off.

Dicing Method 1

We have two different methods for dicing the pineapple. Both work great and so we are going to show you both methods. The first method starts by taking this slices off the width of the pineapple.

Stack a few slices up and make thin slices through the stack. Use a finger to hold the stack together as you draw the knife through.

Now turn the cutting board and make thin cuts in the other direction. You will now have perfect uniform small cubes of pineapple.

Dicing Method 2

The other method of dicing a pineapple is just as easy and makes nice uniform cubes as well. This is similar to the method we use for dicing an onion. Stand the pineapple up and make even cuts in one direction down into the pineapple. The cuts should be about 1/4 inch apart.

Then we will turn the pinapple and make parallel cuts in the other direction the same distance apart.

Now we can put the pineapple on its side and cut slices off it. You will end up with perfect cubes this way as well.

Dice the Onion and Tomato

We use the same kind of knife skills to cut the onion and tomatoes, trying to get 1/4 inch cubes out of both of them. We’ll put the pineapple cubes in a large bowl.

Add the Serrano and Cilantro

We want to dice the serrano and cilantro into even smaller pieces. You don’t want to get a big bite of hot pepper, you want it to be evenly distributed. The same with the cilantro. We will add the serrano and cilantro to the pineapple. Mix this together well.

Add the Tomato and Onion

Next we will add our onion and tomato to the bowl. You’ll see a nice looking salsa with all the ingredients about the same size. You want to be able to get it to stay on a chip is how we look at it. Mix this all together well.

Add Sugar and Salt

Now we will add our sugar and salt. C and H sugar stands for California and Hawaii Sugar Company. We really don’t know where they grow the sugar anymore since they quit growing it on Maui. Anyway we like just a little sugar and salt in our salsa to get the most out of the other flavors.

Add Lime Juice

Our last ingredient is lime juice. We like the juice of one whole lime in here to really brighten it up. Depending on how juicy your limes are, you may need a little more. Feel free to adjust this to your taste. A nice thing about making this salsa in places like Hawaii and Mexico is the abundance of fresh, juicy limes.

Mix Well

Now we just need to make sure everything is mixed together very well. We’ll gently turn it over with a serving spoon and our salsa will be done.

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You can use this salsa to make our BBQ Beef Ribs With Pineapple Salsa recipe.

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