Cutting up fresh whole pineapples have become something I do now on a regular basis. I’m lucky as I’m always able to easily find large beautiful ripe pineapples at my local frutería here in Mexico. I mainly use pineapple in my morning smoothie (along with papaya, mango & bananas…I call it my “Tropical Dream”). I wasn’t a fan of what appeared to be a popular method to cut pineapple which included first removing the entire outer prickly skin. I found doing it this way wasn’t as easy as it sounded and I also feared slicing off part of my finger. It took me a little while to develop a system but I’m now a mean lean pineapple cutting machine. Here’s how I do it in just a few easy to follow steps!

1) To start I lay down the pineapple on its side to cut off the crown. Be sure to use a large knife with a serrated edge.

2) Next I stand the pineapple upright and cut lengthwise down the centre

3) I then take each half and cut them in half again so I now have 4 quarters. I found doing this extra step helped me prepare for removing the core and just made it easier.

4) To remove the core stand each quarter upside down (so the original bottom of the pineapple is facing up) and carefully slice along the spine. I flip each piece upside down because I find the upper edge more stable as it had been freshly cut when I took off the crown and the bottom of the pineapple allows me to see how far the core runs on that particular piece.

5) Next I slice up each piece first making a series of lengthwise cuts and then turn it to cut across those same cuts.

6) Last of all I carefully run my knife along the bottom close to the rind to remove all of the cubes which will just fall off.

And that’s it! This is usually the last step for me as I usually just use pineapple chunks in my smoothies. I will add some fresh pieces to my smoothie and then just freeze the rest to grab a handful each day. If you’re going to serve them (especially to kids) you may wish to further cut up the chunks into more bitesize pieces. If you´re doing a full fruit platter it´s always fun if you keep the crown and use it as part of the display. Enjoy!