Pineapple Jalapeño Salad Recipe – sweet and spicy pineapple and jalapeños with shallots, cucumber, lime juice, and pepper!

At Avdaye, we add lots of tips in all of our recipes – because we are a home cook without any formal training, and we find we are more confident making dishes when we understand why it works, and what each ingredient means to the flavor of a recipe. Our goal is for even the most beginner home cook to feel empowered in the kitchen.

This spicy, sweet, and cooling salad is bursting with fresh flavor – with fresh jalapeños, sweet pineapple, shallots, and cooling cucumber.

It is solid alongside chicken tacos taco skillet air fryer shrimp chicken wings burgersand more!

You can also up the greens by mixing in spinach, kale, romaine or other lettuce blends to make this salad more substantial – or serve it over cauliflower rice!

We hope you love this simple, good salad as much as we do!

How To Make Jalapeno Pineapple Salad

This salad is simple – chop and dice vegetables and aromatics, toss with lime juice and olive oil, and enjoy!

There are a couple tips to make solid pineapple jalapeno salad every time:

Let salad chill at least 30 minutes – this lets the flavor come together, and allows the jalapeño heat to settle a bit
Jalapeños will pack less of a punch if diced instead of sliced into rings
Remove jalapeño seeds to lessen heat
Diced pineapple doesn't taste as sweet as crushed pineapple in this dish – use whichever works for you, but drain liquid as much as you can
Fresh or canned pineapple works

What Vegetables To Use In Pineapple Jalapeno Salad

We're using shallots and cucumber to bring more flavor to this simple salad – but if you don't like cucumber or shallots, you can replace with our suggestions below!

If you don't have shallots or don't like them, you can swap for diced white onion, diced garlic, or diced red onion.

The following vegetables work well either in addition to the cucumber, or in place of cucumber:

Bell peppers
Radishes
Jicama
Sugar snap peas
Corn

How To Cut Jalapeños Without Burning Your Hands

Jalapeño hands are awful – the oil from jalapeños can get into your hands and irritate them – and the worst part is, it can take hours to feel the pain!

To help prevent burning and stinging hands after handling jalapeños, use our tips below:

Use gloves to cut fresh jalapeños – using gloves is the best way to prevent stinging jalapeño hands
Rub hands in olive oil before cutting jalapeños – let it sink in to act as a barrier from letting jalapeño oils from sinking in
Wash hands with a bit of olive oil to remove any jalapeno oil that may have touched your hands, and then scrub with a dish soap that is great at de-greasing to wash away any excess jalapeño oil