Grilled Stuffed Pineapple with Sausage, Peppers, Red Onion, & Sweet ‘n Sour Poppy Seed Sauce

    I hated pineapple when I was little. Just didn’t care for it at all! Until I tried my first bite of fresh pineapple! Wowzers! What a difference! They barely even taste the same! As an adult, I don’t mind the canned now, but I like to use fresh whenever possible. Paired with grilled, hot Italian sausages, skewered sweet bell peppers and red onion, and ladled with my quick and easy sweet ‘n sour sauce with poppy seeds, it was a meal that tasted like it was from a Hawaiian Island beachside cafe! And my handsome “cabana boy” was a very happy camper indeed. 😉 The “yummy sounds” lasted throughout the meal. No words needed. Best thank you and compliment you can get! 

    When using fresh pineapple, I usually just slice off the top and bottom, slice off the outsides, cut into quarters, slice out core at an angle, and cut into chunks. But this, for the first time, I decided to try and keep them in halves and hollow them. It was a lot easier than I thought! I was afraid at first I’d just total them, but it was easy. Sliced them in half, removed the core and then cut out chunks in layers. I felt like I had been doing this my whole life it was just that easy! Here’s a pic of them, if you can see ok, hollowed out and getting ready to be filled soon!

    Now you see why I love to grill out so much. PLEASE excuse my dirty grill! It’s always clean on the inside I swear, but…we’ve had a TON of rain and I haven’t cleaned the outside of the grill in more than a week….sooooo embarrassing….

    I used hot italian sausages, but you can use sweet or mild if preferred. But that hot/ sweet/ tart combo was phenomenal! Looking to lighten up? Try using a chicken or turkey sausage instead. Don’t care for sausage at all? Chunked chicken grilled on skewers would be equally as good! 

    You can change-up the veggies, too. My hubby isn’t a huge fan of peppers, though he liked this just fine, next time I might add some grilled zucchini to his. And maybe some grilled eggplant to mine! Cherry, grape or pear tomatoes would be a nice addition, as well as pea pods and water chestnuts. Along with extra veggies, mandarin oranges, fruit cocktail, maraschino cherries, and other assorted fresh grilled summer fruits could be added if going vegetarian to replace any meat all together!

 

 

   

Play around with it and create your own masterpiece! They truly look spectacular, and can be made ahead of time for easy entertaining, too. Enjoy all! And have a beautiful day!  🙂 

 

My recipe was shared for:

 

 

GRILLED STUFFED PINEAPPLE with SAUSAGE, PEPPERS, RED ONION, & SWEET ‘N SOUR POPPY SEED SAUCE 

Serves 4

 

For Sweet ‘n Sour Poppy Seed Sauce:

3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar, ( up to 1 cup if you prefer it more sweet than sour)

3 Tbl. cornstarch

1 (6 oz.) can Dole Pineapple Orange Juice, or regular pineapple 

1/3 cup apple cider vinegar

1 Tbl. soy sauce, regular or low-sodium

1/2 tsp. poppy seeds

 

Rest of Ingredients:

2 fresh pineapples

1 pkg. sweet, mild or hot italian sausages, (5-6 depending on brand)

2 green bell peppers, large diced 

2 red bell peppers, large diced

half of a red onion, large diced or wedges, or sweet Vidalia when they’re in season if you can get them

 

Directions:

In small saucepan on grill or stovetop, combine well the dark brown sugar and cornstarch. Stir in juice, vinegar and soy sauce. Over medium heat, heat until boiling, thickened, dark and clear-ish (not cloudy), stirring constantly. You’ll see it change right before your eyes like magic! Remove from heat when it starts to boil. Stir in poppy seeds, cover and set aside. 

Cut up veggies and thread onto skewers. Place on medium-hot grill along with sausages and grill until sausage is done with lid closed. *Sausages take about 20-30 minutes. Veggies take less time. Just remove veggies when edges are tinged for crisp-tender after about 10-15 minutes.  *Make sure you turn all now and then for even cooking.

Let veggies and sausages rest while cutting pineapples. I found it easy to just slice them in half right through the stem, slice the cores across at the top and bottom within a 1/2 inch from the outside, then get them out by slicing at a sharp angle on each side of the core. Then I just lifted/pulled them right out. Then I removed the insides by running my knife around the edges, and sliced out the pineapple in two layers of spears that I sliced into chunks. There was a teeny bit left in the bottom that I scraped out with a spoon. (It did not go to waste! 😉 ) 

Now just slice sausages at an angle, toss with pineapple chunks and grilled veggies, and pile into pineapple halves. Spoon sweet ‘n sour sauce over each well. Place onto foil covered grill, close lid and grill at medium heat (350 degrees) for 15 minutes until you can hear them sizzling inside and heated through. Serve hot, but also good at room temp.