Sri Lankan Pineapple Curry

This mouthwatering Sri Lankan Pineapple Curry is such a delicious and light meal for those hot summer days! A true culinary delight for your lunch break or dinner!

The sweetness and exotic flavours of pineapple are paired up with the hot spiciness of chillies and the warmth of spices like cinnamon, turmeric and cardamom.

Contents

• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Substitutions
• Storage
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

This Sri Lankan Pineapple Curry is also naturally vegan, gluten-free and sugar-free (I don’t add sugar because I think the pineapple makes it sweet enough).

Ingredients

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• pineapple chunks
• spices: curry powder, turmeric, black mustard seeds, cardamom, cinnamon
• onion
• garlic
• chillies
• coconut milk

Pineapple

I always use fresh pineapple but you can also use tinned/canned pineapple (in its own juice) instead. The size doesn’t really matter—don’t stress about it too much (but I do give you a rough weight in the recipe card below to go by).

Generally, I never cut off the stalky bit (the centre) because I don’t mind it. We cook the pineapple, so it’ll be much softer at the end. But, by all means, cut it off if you prefer.

Spices

I love using whole spices but you can swap them with a ground version too (see “substitutions” below).

You should be able to get black mustard seeds in your grocery shop, most definitely in an Asia shop (or get them on amazon)! You can also use yellow mustard seeds for a milder flavour.

Instead of using curry powder, you can simply mix a few spices together (that’s what I did… because I ran out of it, and it came out so beautifully). I used 1 teaspoon of cumin, good pinches of ground coriander, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and cardamom, and dried fenugreek leaves (methi).

Chillies

Traditionally in a Sri Lankan Pineapple Curry, we use green chillies, however, if you can’t get them you can also use small red chillies (or add ¼ teaspoon of chilli flakes). Where I live, I can’t get any green ones so I just use 1 red chilli instead.

Additional Ingredients

Although this curry totally tastes wonderful on its own with just pineapple, I absolutely loooove adding zucchini or squash to it. It bulks it up a bit more and adds more nutrients to it ;).

Instructions

My top tip: before you start cooking, have everything ready and prepped.

That means, grouping the ingredients together that go in at the same time and placing the spices in a small dish so you can simply tip them in. This will make you’re cooking a lot less stressful!

Step One. Heat some oil in a large frying pan or a wok over medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot, add the whole spices: cinnamon stick, cardamom pods and mustard seeds.

Fry for about 2 minutes, stirring occasionally until you hear the mustard seeds pop.

Step Two. Add ground spices (turmeric & curry powder) and stir quite frequently so they don’t burn. After a minute or so, add onion, garlic and chilli(es). Fry until the onion turns translucent.

If it gets too crumbly, you can add some more oil. Just so you can avoid burning the spices.

Step Three. Add pineapple chunks (including the juice) and coconut milk and bring to a simmer.

Step Four. Cook your Sri Lankan Pineapple Curry for about 15-20 minutes over low to medium heat, so the fruit has some time to marinate in the sauce and the spices fully release their flavours.

While the curry is simmering, cook some rice (or try my Jeera Rice for a change!), heat up or make some naan bread or make cauliflower rice (for low-carb and paleo).

Step Five. Pick out the cinnamon stick and cardamom pods. Serve hot with (cauliflower) rice or naan bread and garnish with fresh cilantro.

Another top tip: you can reuse the cinnamon stick and cardamom pods! For instance, I just add them to my herbal teas the next morning. They usually still have a lot of flavour!

Substitutions

Pineapple: This curry also tastes super yummy with mango! Try it out!

Coconut milk: If you simply don’t like the taste of coconut, you can replace the coconut milk with regular cream (for vegan, use oat, rice or cashew cream).

Whole Spices: If you want to use ground spices instead of whole, use ¼ teaspoon of each cinnamon and cardamom and a ¼-½ teaspoon of ground mustard seeds.

Storage

This Sri Lankan Pineapple Curry keeps in the fridge, in an airtight container, for several days. You can also freeze it for up to 3 months.

📖 Recipe