Tropical Pineapple Salsa is a spicy, sweet, colorful snack idea! So versatile, you can enjoy with tortilla chips or spoon it over your favorite grilled chicken or fish!
Love homemade recipes for Taco Tuesday? Try our tomatillo salsa next! Perfect on a batch of our chicken enchiladas!
Why this Recipe Works
I’m not a stranger to homemade salsa recipes. While most of you come here for the sweets, if you poke around you’ll see I have plenty of savory foods too. And that includes a variety of salsa recipes, from mango salsa to salsa verde!
Normally, people imagine salsa to be a tomato based dip for your tortilla chips. And while that’s awesome and wonderful, if you’ve never explored fruit salsa recipes, please give them a try.
You can still get the heat by adding in jalapenos, but the addition of pineapple in the salsa gives it a sweet flavor.
It’s perfect on a chip or to add as a topping to your favorite fish or chicken recipe.
Ingredient Notes
- Pineapple – You need a fresh pineapple diced. Buy the whole pineapple and use the hallowed out part to serve your salsa for a fun presentation! Or you can buy cut pineapple at the store to make this recipe more convenient.
- Jalapeno – Remove the membrane and seeds first to control the level of heat in the salsa.
- Tomatoes – Roma tomatoes have the best flavor and plumpness for this recipe and are readily available year round.
- Cilantro – Not a fan? You can leave it out and the pineapple salsa will still turn out delicious, but I love the freshness it adds.
- Lime – Fresh lime juice is the best! You need the juice from 1 lime for this salsa. Use the palm of your hand to roll the lime before you cut it to help release some of the juices.
How to Make Pineapple Salsa
PINEAPPLE.
Cut a fresh pineapple in half lengthwise. Scoop out the pineapple filling, discarding the hard and bitter center portion. Save the hollowed out pineapple to use as a serving bowl for your fresh pineapple salsa.
SALSA.
To the fresh diced pineapple, add finely diced red onion, green pepper, jalapenos, and roma tomatoes. Be sure to chop everything small so you can scoop this salsa on a chip.
Add salt, pepper, lime juice, and cilantro. Mix everything and refrigerate in a covered bowl until ready to serve.
SERVE.
To serve, spoon fresh salsa into the saved pineapple “bowl.” Refill as needed and enjoy with tortilla chips! Make it sweet by serving with cinnamon tortilla chips!
Tips and Tricks
- Use a very sharp knife to cut your pineapple in half. You can then scoop out the filling and dice the pineapple, discarding that hard and bitter center portion. Use the pineapple shell as a fun serving bowl!
- Dice the pineapple, red onion, peppers and tomatoes very small. You’ll want to be able to scoop a little bit of everything on your chip for each bite!
- Like it spicy? Leave some of the membranes and seeds with the jalapenos to add into the salsa to give it more heat.
- Refrigerate the salsa, covered, to allow the flavors to marinate. Cover the pineapple bowl and refrigerate it as well to keep it fresh until it’s time to serve.
Recipe FAQs
Yes! It helps to let the salsa chill in the fridge for at least an hour to allow all the flavors to marry together.
The salsa can be stored, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 days.
I don’t recommend it. Fresh pineapple is the key flavor here and both frozen and canned fruit will be much less firm and could make the salsa watery.
What to serve with Pineapple Salsa
While tortilla chips are always a hit, and spooning salsa over chicken is an option as well, we like to create a fiesta party with these tex mex dishes:
More Appetizer Recipes
- Nutty Caramel Snack Mix
- Easy S’mores Dip
- Mango Guacamole
- Bruschetta Recipe
- Artichoke Dip
- Seven Layer Dip
- BLT Dip
- Hummus Recipe
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Pineapple Salsa Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 fresh pineapple diced- about 2 1/2 cups
- 1 small red onion diced
- ½ green pepper seeded and diced
- 2 jalapenos seeded and diced fine
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 Tablespoons cilantro snipped
- 2 roma tomatoes diced
- 1 lime juiced
- 5 cranks fresh black pepper
Instructions
- Cut a fresh pineapple in half lengthwise. Scoop out the pineapple filling, discarding the hard and bitter center portion. Save the hollowed out pineapple to use as a serving bowl for your fresh pineapple salsa.
- To the fresh diced pineapple, add finely diced red onion, green pepper, jalapenos, and roma tomatoes. Be sure to chop everything small so you can scoop this salsa on a chip.
- Add salt, pepper, lime juice, and cilantro. Mix everything and refrigerate in a covered bowl until ready to serve.
- To serve, spoon fresh salsa into the saved pineapple "bowl." Refill as needed and enjoy with tortilla chips!
Notes
- Use a very sharp knife to cut your pineapple in half. You can then scoop out the filling and dice the pineapple, discarding that hard and bitter center portion. Use the pineapple shell as a fun serving bowl!
- Dice the pineapple, red onion, peppers and tomatoes very small. You’ll want to be able to scoop a little bit of everything on your chip for each bite!
- Like it spicy? Leave some of the membranes and seeds with the jalapenos to add into the salsa to give it more heat.
- Refrigerate the salsa, covered, to allow the flavors to marinate. Cover the pineapple bowl and refrigerate it as well to keep it fresh until it’s time to serve.
This salsa is one of my favorites!!!!
This sounds so delicious!! I was wondering if the green pepper is a green bell pepper or is it a hot pepper? I can handle a little spice but not super hot! Thanks for the recipe?
Bell pepper. You can add “heat” by using jalapeno 🙂
Thank you so much for your commitment and service, Marine Mom and Son. You sacrifice a lot for all of us. I hope your son makes it through training with the heat of the summer. He must be one tough guy to get so far. Congratulations and I know you must be SO proud. My best to your family 🙂
Hi Aimee,
This recipe looks amazing and your presentation couldn’t be cuter! This will be the star of our next cookout for sure!
I really like fruit salsas! Yum!
I love fruity salsas! And how adorable is this to serve it in the pineapple?! Such a summery dish – love it!
Thank you!!
This is basically a vacation IN a pineapple 🙂 I LOVE anything pineapple, so this is right up my alley!
haha! I’m a pineapple lover as well, so it’s truly delicious.
This pineapple salsa would be delicious on chicken or fish! I could even eat it by the spoonful! lol
I LOVE pineapple salsa! I don’t even need chips or anything to put it on…just give me a fork! Enjoy your summer and just staying put…as someone who’s summer is anything but ‘calm’, I’d love to be having yours 🙂
Moving and remodeling is rough!! hang in there…as you know it’s so worth it!!
Can this be made the night before and refrigerated?
Yes it can!
I LOVE this salsa, Aimee! Not only is it filled with pineapple (my fave) but I love the presentation too! How fun would this be to serve at summer parties? Love!!
They look so delisious, These foods are good for health.