Pineapple Pico De Gallo

Name: Pineapple Pico de Gallo
Prep time: 15 min
Total time: 15 min
Ingredients: 2 cups diced pineapple; 1 jalapeño (stemmed, leave in seeds); ¼ cup finely diced red onion; 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro; 2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1 lime (juiced)

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Let's bring a tropical touch to your dinner table with this sweet and spicy pineapple pico de gallo! Prepared with fresh pineapple, ginger, jalapeño, red onion and zesty lime juice, this fruity salsa is perfect for serving as a crowd-pleasing dip or as an accompaniment to your favorite fish tacos. Plus, it's super simple to prepare and takes about 15 minutes to whip up.

A close-up shot of the pineapple pico de gallo in a pineapple bowl on a blue surface with cilantro around it.

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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Ingredients
Step-by-Step Instructions
Recipe FAQs
Variations
Expert Tips
Perfect Pairing
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Whisks you away to a beach vacation: One taste of this pineapple dip and you’ll feel like you’re relaxing on the beach with all those tropical flavors, especially with a fruity margarita on the side. Who doesn’t love a recipe that can do that? This pineapple salsa always sets the mood for a fun and relaxing time when entertaining.

Versatile with multiple uses: Need a fruity salsa dip? This is perfect. Or you can use it to top so many dishes, I especially love it with my blackened salmon tacos, lobster tacos or ahi nachos, but you could also use it to go on summer salads, grilled fish or a Hawaiian chicken burger. Keep this recipe handy because you’ll want to make it again and again.

Easy as can be: If you can chop, you can make this fresh pineapple pico de gallo. It requires no advanced skills, so cooks of all levels can master this recipe.

Related: For more fruit salsa recipes, you can also try my mango-habanero salsa or tropical pico de gallo!

Ingredients

I just love how this recipe features only simple, fresh ingredients. Let's chat about a few ingredients notes to set you up for success.

Pineapple: You can chop the fruit using a whole pineapple, or you can chop them from pre-cut pineapple from the grocery store. Here’s a tutorial for how to cut a whole pineapple if you’ve never worked with one.

Fresh ginger: This is my secret ingredient that I add to all my fruit salsa and pico de gallo recipes. Ginger beautifully complements fruit and adds some complexity with an extra spice kick.

Lime juice: Make sure you use fresh lime juice. Bottled lime juice lacks flavor and brightness. We’re only using a handful of ingredients, so quality is even more important.

Jalapeño: Like the lime juice, we want fresh jalapeños here. This is not the time to get out a jar of pickled jalapeños.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Now let's show you how truly easy it is to make this recipe.

Step 1: We add the ripe pineapple, jalapeño, red onion, cilantro, ginger and salt to a medium mixing bowl and squeeze lime juice on top (photo 1).

The chopped ingredients in a large glass mixing bowl before stirring.

Step 2: Using a large spoon, we stir the ingredient mixture until combined like so (photo 2).

The ingredients in a large glass mixing bowl after they've been stirred to combine.

And that’s it! All we do is chop and stir. Grab your favorite tortilla chips, a Texas margarita and enjoy every bite.

Recipe FAQs

What’s the difference between pico de gallo and salsa?

The two are both in the same family, but salsa is blended while pico de gallo contains chopped fresh, raw ingredients. Some salsas are cooked, but they don’t necessarily have to be. The big difference between the two really comes down to texture.

Is pineapple pico de gallo spicy?

This pico de gallo comes with a kick, but it’s not overwhelming. While heat is subjective, I believe just about anyone should be able to handle the heat here. You mostly get the pineapple flavor upfront, and then a little spice comes in at the backend.

How do you store this pico de gallo?

Keep the pico de gallo in the refrigerator in an airtight container. With proper storage, it should keep for about two to three days.

Variations

Feel free to use another type of fruit to create your own customized recipe. Mango, papaya, and peach all make lovely substitutions.

Give this fresh salsa more of a spice kick with another jalapeño or swap the jalapeño with Serrano peppers or habanero, which complements that fruity, sweet flavor nicely.

Not a cilantro fan? While I love fresh cilantro, some people have aversions to it. You can always leave it out.

Want to add a creamy touch? Add some diced avocado to the mix. You just may want to take care of this step right before serving to prevent browning.

Add a depth of flavor and substitute freshly cut pineapple for this smoked pineapple.

A pineapple bowl filled with pineapple pico de gallo and a tortilla chip on the side of the bowl.

Expert Tips

Freeze your ginger: To easily grate the ginger, I like to first peel it, store it in the freezer and then use a microplane grater. Frozen ginger grates so much easier than unfrozen ginger. I always keep some in the freezer to ensure it’s on hand.

Wear kitchen gloves: When handling the jalapeño, those oils stay on your fingers, and if you accidentally rub your eyes, it will burn. If you don’t have kitchen gloves, make sure you wash your hands well after handling the jalapeño.

Roll your lime: Before juicing the lime, firmly roll it on the countertop under the palm of your hand several times. This helps get the juices going. Also, make sure you pick a lime that has some give when you press into it. A hard lime is dried out.

Plan ahead: While you can certainly serve this salsa right away, I like to let it sit in the refrigerator for a few hours. This gives the flavor time to meld.

Show off an impressive presentation: Serving this pico de gallo in a pineapple bowl instantly makes for a memorable dish. Here's an easy tutorial on how to make a pineapple bowl.

Perfect Pairing

For a beer, I love a juicy IPA. This style of IPA comes with prominent fruit notes to complement the pineapple, and the hops nicely accentuate the spicy jalapeño.

With my fruit salsa and pico de gallo recipes, I always love a German gewürztraminer. This wine is known for its residual sweetness to balance the spice along with tropical fruit notes that perfectly match the pineapple and ginger.

If you’re craving a cocktail, you can go wrong with a little tequila. My tequila sour and tequila lemonade are perfect, or you could go with a margarita. You'll love my Cadillac margarita is great for a more traditional option, or you could get extra fruity with my raspberry margarita, coconut margarita, blueberry margarita, spicy mango margarita or blackberry margarita. You can also play up the pineapple with this pineapple-coconut margarita.

For the perfect summer appetizer, I hope you try my fresh pineapple pico de gallo. You will love every tropical bite.

Cheers!

A hand scooping a tortilla chip into the pineapple pico de gallo on a blue surface.

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