Salsa in a bowl with tortilla chips.

May 1, 2023

• Appetizers & Snacks

Grilled Pineapple Salsa

With jalapeños, red peppers and lime juice, this grilled pineapple salsa is spicy, smoky and a bit sweet. You can serve it as an appetizer with chips or spoon it onto tacos, chicken, salmon and so much more.
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Grilling pineapple brings out its sweetness and intensifies its flavor. For this grilled pineapple salsa, I combine the fruit with grilled red bell peppers, red onions, jalapeños, lime juice and cilantro. It has a wonderful freshness and smokiness. Eat with chips or use it as a topping on grilled vegetables, chicken or fish.

Try this mango habanero salsa for another fruity salsa recipe.

Grilled pineapple salsa in a bowl.
Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Why Grill Pineapple?
How to Pick a Ripe Pineapple
The Ingredients
How To Make this Easy Pineapple Salsa Recipe
Serving
Storage & Leftovers
Recipe Tips
FAQs
More Grilling Recipe
Grilled Pineapple Salsa Recipe

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Salsa is a sauce, dip and a condiment. There are so many ways to enjoy it. Even though this salsa is sweeter than traditional recipes with tomatoes, it is fantastic with savory dishes.

Grilling the pineapple and peppers adds smoky flavor. This extra step brings out the taste of the fruit and the red peppers.

With homemade salsa you can control the spice level. It is easy to increase or decrease the amount of jalapeños or other hot peppers that you stir into salsa made from scratch. Also, it has a freshness that you can’t get with jarred salsa.

Why Grill Pineapple?

Not every kind of fruit is suitable for grilling, but pineapple is great because it stays juicy. You don’t need to worry that it will dry out. Pineapple is high in natural sugar, so it will caramelize. The fruit becomes sweeter when you grill it, and the smokiness balances that out.

How to Pick a Ripe Pineapple

A ripe pineapple should feel heavy for its size. The outer skin should be more yellow in tone with only a bit of green. When you press it, the pineapple shouldn’t be too soft, or it is probably overripe. It should have a little bit of give. Pineapple season goes from March to July.

The Ingredients

Ingredients including pineapple, red peppers, onions, jalapenos, cilantro, lime juice, garlic, salt & pepper.

This is what you need:

  • Pineapple: The recipe calls for half of a whole pineapple. I cut off the skin and slice it into rounds. You don’t need to cut out the core. Once the pineapple is grilled and you’re chopping it, then you can just discard the section of core in the middle of each slice.
  • Red bell pepper: It’s easiest to slice the pepper into 2-3-inch wide pieces before you grill it. Then you dice it afterward.
  • Jalapeños: If you want the salsa to turn out spicier, you can include more than 1 jalapeño in the recipe. Or do the opposite if you prefer it to be less spicy and don’t use an entire jalapeño. Taste the salsa and make adjustments.
  • Red onions: To make sure the salsa has some crispness, I don’t grill the onions. They give you that crunch when you keep them raw.
  • Garlic: There is one minced garlic clove in the salsa.
  • Cilantro: The recipe is best with lots of chopped fresh cilantro.
  • Lime juice: Always use fresh lime juice.
  • Olive oil: I brush the pineapple and peppers with olive oil to prevent them from sticking to the grill grates.
  • Salt & pepper season the salsa.

How To Make this Easy Pineapple Salsa Recipe

Preheat a gas or charcoal grill or a grill pan on the stove on medium heat.

1. Brush the pineapple and peppers with olive oil.

2. Grill the pineapple and the peppers for 2-3 minutes per side until they have grill marks.

Pineapple and peppers are brushed with oil and then they are put on the grill.

3. Roughly chop the pineapple slices, discarding the core.

4. Roughly dice the peppers.

Chopped pineapple on a cutting board and chopped peppers on another cutting board.

5. Combine the pineapple, red peppers, jalapeños, onions, garlic, cilantro, lime juice, salt pepper in a large bowl.

6. Stir together the salsa ingredients. Taste it and add more jalapenos, salt and pepper as needed to suit your taste.

Salsa ingredients in a bowl before and after they are stirred together.

Serving

As mentioned, you can eat the salsa with tortilla chips for a snack or an appetizer. The salt on the chips is tasty with the sweet, smoky salsa. You can also spoon it on tacos, fajitas or a grilled veggie burrito bowl. Pineapple salsa is excellent with salmon, shrimp, chicken or pork. Try scooping some into a spicy black bean salad.

Storage & Leftovers

You can store leftover salsa in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 4 days. It will soften the longer it sits. It is not freezable.

Recipe Tips

Watch out for hot spots on the grill. Some of the pineapple and peppers might be ready before others if they are on a hotter part of the grill. Move them around as needed and take them off when they are ready.

Remove some of the excess juice from the pineapple.  The fruit become juicier after it’s grilled. After you chop it, you can put the fruit in a fine mesh strainer and give it a few shakes. Or lightly pat the grilled pineapple with a towel.

Taste the salsa after you stir it together, and make adjustments to the jalapeños, salt and pepper. You may want it to be spicier, or it might need more seasonings.

FAQs

Can you make fresh pineapple salsa with this recipe?

If you don’t have a grill, you can make fresh pineapple salsa and skip the grilling steps.

Can you use pineapple that’s already cut into chunks?

You will find that it’s easier to grill full pineapple slices because they won’t fall through the grates and because it is less fruit to be flipping over and moving on the grill.

More Grilling Recipe

How To Use a Stovetop Grill Pan
Grilled Watermelon
Halloumi and Mixed Vegetables
Tofu Shawarma
Peach Corn Salad
Grilled Cauliflower with Lemon
Tomato Asparagus Salad
Grilled Vegetable Orzo Salad

Did you make this salsa recipe? Please leave a rating and comment below. Thanks!

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Grilled pineapple salsa in a bowl.

Grilled Pineapple Salsa Recipe

  • Author: Paige Adams
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 6 minutes
  • Total Time: 16 minutes
  • Yield: 3 cups 1x
  • Category: Appetizer
  • Method: Grilling
  • Cuisine: Mexican
  • Diet: Vegan
Print Recipe

Description

With jalapenos, red peppers and lime juice, this grilled pineapple salsa is spicy, smoky and a bit sweet. Try scooping it up with tortilla chips or spoon it onto tacos, chicken, salmon, pork or shrimp.

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1/2 whole pineapple, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds
  • 1 red bell pepper, cut into 2-inch-wide strips
  • Olive oil for brushing
  • 1 jalapeño, deseeded and minced
  • 1 small red onion, diced
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
  • Juice of 2 lime
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Instructions

  1. Preheat a gas or charcoal grill or a grill pan on the stove on medium heat.
  2. Brush the pineapple and red peppers with olive oil.
  3. Grilled the pineapple and red peppers for 2-3 minutes per side until they have grill marks and are lightly charred.
  4. Chop the pineapple around the core. Discard the core. Grilling can make the pineapple juicier. Pat off the excess juice with a towel. Or put the pineapple in a fine mesh strainer to drain the juice.
  5. Chop the peppers.
  6. Combine the pineapples, peppers, jalapenos, onions, garlic, cilantro, lime juice, salt pepper in a medium bowl. Stir to combine.

Notes

You can serve the salsa as an appetizer with tortilla chips or use it as a topping for tacos, fajitas or a burrito bowl.

Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 4 days. The longer you keep it the more soft the ingredients will get.

Keywords: pineapple salsa, grilled pineapple salsa

Let me know if you've made this recipe.

Share a photo and tag @lastingredient on Instagram.

Recipe originally published January 13, 2014. Updated: May 1, 2023.

Recipe and Photography by Paige Adams

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  1. Hi there! I’m a freelance artist from St. Louis, Mo. working with interior designs and staging at the moment besides that I, too, love to cook. My grandparents founded the family restaurant and operations lasted over 60 years, so I had plenty of time to play in the kitchen! I came across your posts on Instagram and was instantly impressed! I eat a WholeFoodPlantBased (WFPB) diet and I feel I hit the jackpot because your recipes are fresh, colorful, simple and creatively presented. Combining your ideas with mine have given my family and I some different choices. Thanks for sharing your gifts!

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