Don't Throw Out Your Pineapple's Core — Use It For A Salad Topping Instead

There's more to pineapples than the vibrant flesh. Each fruit contains untapped potential you never even considered. Sure, we've seen how the rind can give fried rice a festive upgrade as a pineapple serving boat, but the core can also be utilized. When given the chance and the right treatment, it becomes the salad topping no one saw coming. The next time you're hovering over your cutting board, with the flesh all chopped up and the core in hand, don't throw it away. Make the best of it for a salad unlike any other.

Admittedly, the pineapple core doesn't seem tempting at first. Its recalcitrant nature means it won't offer that juicy sweetness you often get with the flesh. Instead, it may hold a bitter undertone, only faintly lingering of the fruit's sweet-tart flavor. Texture-wise, it borders on the tough, fibrous side, although many find that stringy crunchiness to be a nice change from the tender, juicy flesh. These qualities, as surprising as it may sound, are exactly what makes it such an outstanding salad topping.

Those tiny sparks of flavor are what brighten your salad from the inside as the subtle sweetness slowly unravels into the vegetables and fruits. And since it's already tough, you don't have to worry about the dressing turning it soggy. Soon enough, you'll get different layers of pineapple essence — a touch of the flesh's vibrancy here and an edge of the core's boldness there, playing off each other in the most exciting dynamic.

There are quite a few ways to use your leftover pineapple core, and it even comes in multiple forms as a salad topping. The easiest one would be to straight-up grate it over your salads for little fruity slivers. It also lightly perfumes all the remaining ingredients with the tropical vibrancy we've come to love in pineapples. This is just the kind of subtle yet impactful finishing touch that revives an ordinary fruit salad and completes an already zingy salsa.

Another way is to dice it into cubes. You can always eat it raw, but a quick boil will soften its texture and smooth out harsh flavor edges. If you're making a grilled chicken Caesar salad, for example, you might as well throw it over the dancing flame, too. Consider also seasoning it with your dressing staples, such as cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes for a kick of heat, or dried herbs to strike up an aromatic summer medley. That's how you get a tender-crisp salad topping laced with smoky complexity, the perfect companion for your summer barbecues.

True crispiness, the kind that you seek in chips and dried fruits, can also be recreated. Thickly slice and roast it in the oven for up to four-and-a-half hours, occasionally flipping to evenly cook all the sides. After patiently waiting, you'll have a bowl of crispy, healthy chips. Already a delight on their own, just imagine how fun they will be when popping up between soft bites of a Hawaiian salad or a Thai salad loaded with crunchy cabbage ribbons.