Okay, I’m not the biggest fan of a salad, even though I have had some fantastic tasting salads in my life.

This is one of those dishes that you’re not quite sure how to qualify … is it a salad? Is it a dessert? Why is my mouth on fire? In the end, just say “this is delicious” and go from there!

I’m sure that over the summer you’ll be invited to someone’s house for a BBQ and you’ll see the words “pot luck” somewhere … THIS is a great dish to bring over to the party!

Let’s see how to make it!

You will need:

• 1 pineapple (you can buy it peeled and cored if you want to save time)
• 1/2 red onion
• 2 thai chilis (trust me, that’s enough!)
• 4 oz fresh cilantro
• 2 tbsp olive oil

First thing you’re going to need to do, once you have large bowl, is cut off the top of the pineapple

Now slice off the bottom

Stand the pineapple up and slice off the rind (or skin)

Get it nice and clean … try to dig out any leftover nodes

Slice in half. You should be able to spot the inedible core quite easily.

Slice into quarters and remove the core. Now cut the quarters into halves again .

Slice into approximately 1 inch slices

Slice again in half, and you should have nice, bite sized pieces of pineapple.

Repeat this until your pineapple is all bite sized pieces, like this!

Slice your onion in half, and then dice that half

Should look like this

Add those onions to the bowl

Time for the chili peppers!  Now, let’s talk about what NOT TO DO when you cut hot peppers. You are going to get very hot chili oil on your fingers. No matter how carefully you wash your hands, this is going to last for a few hours. Be cautious not to touch your eyes after! For extra precaution, you can wear latex gloves … seriously, once you’ve accidentally touched your eye after cutting chili peppers, you’ll understand!

(Think your fingers are clean? Touch one to your tongue and let it sit there for a moment … you feel that burning? Yea … once you can touch your tongue without a burn, you’re okay!)

Cut off the tops and tips, then slice open

We’re going to remove the seeds

The majority of the heat from chili peppers come from the seeds. This will be plenty spicy without the seeds … but you can keep some if you really want some heat!

Chop the chili peppers into very small pieces

Remember, you don’t want a big mouthful of chili when you eat this!

Add the chili peppers to the bowl

Chop some fresh cilantro

Not too fine … remember, some folks can’t stand cilantro, so it’s nice for them to be able to see and avoid it

Now add this to the bowl

Okay, almost done!

Pinch of salt (I am using a nice grey salt here … not sure if it makes any difference, but I feel fancy!)

Now add the olive oil

… and mix it all together!

Great Spicy Thai Pineapple Salad !

Perfect to bring to a picnic or BBQ. Just make sure to warn people that it’s spicy!

Bon Apetit!