Annasi Curry
Sri Lankan Pineapple Curry (Sweet and Sour Pineapple Curry)
Also known as Annasi Maluwa
Sri Lankan pineapple curry, known locally as annasi curry, is chunks of ripe pineapple simmered in coconut gravy with mustard, chilli, turmeric, cinnamon and curry leaves. It's sweet, sour and properly hot all at once, and it sounds unlikely until you taste it, then it's addictive. That bright, surprising note sits against rice and a row of milder curries, and it's the dish people always ask about first. It's naturally vegan and ready in well under an hour.
A glossy sweet, sour and hot pineapple curry that surprises everyone at the table and disappears just as fast.
- Total time
- 35 min
- 15 min prep · 20 min cook
- Serves
- 4 people
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- Spice level
- Medium
- Country help
- USA · UK · AU · CA substitutes included
CeylonCooking
ceyloncooking.com/recipes/pineapple-curry
Sri Lankan Pineapple Curry (Annasi Curry)
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Nutrition
Estimated values, per serving.
About This Dish
Tell someone you're putting pineapple in a curry and you'll usually get a raised eyebrow. Then, a few mouthfuls later, they're asking for the recipe. Annasi is the Sinhala word for pineapple, so annasi curry is simply pineapple curry, sometimes called annasi maluwa, maluwa being the everyday word for a curry or gravy dish. It's one of those Sri Lankan dishes that turns familiar fruit into something you never expected: warm, savoury, spicy and gently sweet, all in the same spoonful.
Pineapple curry sits in the same family as the island's other sweet-and-spicy favourites: the moju and the pickles, the curries that exist to wake up everything around them. Pineapple is generous and cheap when it's in season, so a pot of annasi curry often turns up at a big lunch as the cheerful, surprising dish among the dhal and the greens. It's the one everyone points at and explains, and the one a guest remembers long after the meal. In coastal and southern homes especially, that play of fruit against chilli and mustard is completely normal, even essential.
Look, a good pineapple curry is balance, and you hold all the dials. The fruit brings sweetness and a sharp tropical acidity. Chilli and mustard bring heat and pungency. Coconut milk rounds everything into a glossy, mellow gravy. Done well, no single flavour wins. You taste the sweetness first, then the sour edge, then a slow build of warmth from the chilli, with the savoury hum of curry leaves and cinnamon underneath. It should taste bright and a little reckless, never like dessert.
It rewards a light hand and a quick cook. The long, slow curries built on tough vegetables need time, but pineapple is already tender. It only needs enough to drink up the spice and soften at the edges without collapsing into jam. That makes it a brilliant curry for a beginner: a handful of pantry spices, one tin of coconut milk, a fresh or even tinned pineapple, and twenty minutes on the stove between you and the most talked-about dish on the table.
Choosing Pineapple for Curry
The pineapple you pick quietly decides whether your curry leans sweet or sharp, so give it a moment's thought. A fully ripe pineapple, fragrant at the base and giving slightly when pressed, brings honeyed sweetness and a softer acidity. That makes a rounder, mellower curry, and you balance it by leaning a little harder on the chilli and mustard. A slightly underripe pineapple, firmer and more tart, brings a brighter, more aggressive sourness that stands up beautifully to the heat. That's why many cooks actually prefer it just shy of fully ripe. Neither is wrong. You're simply choosing where the curry lands on the sweet-to-sour line and seasoning to match.
Fresh pineapple gives the best texture. It holds its shape and keeps a clean tropical tang, and the core, which people usually throw away, is perfectly good here once you trim it and chop it small. Canned pineapple works in a pinch and is genuinely handy out of season, but treat it differently: it's softer, so it needs less simmering, and it's usually packed in sweet syrup, so drain it well and cut the added sugar right back or your curry will tip into cloying. Whichever you use, the job is the same: the fruit's sweetness and acidity are exactly what tame and balance the chilli and the sharp bite of mustard, turning three loud flavours into one balanced gravy.
What It Should Taste Like
Tender pineapple in a glossy golden coconut gravy that hits sweet, sour and hot at once. There's the pungent tang of mustard, the warmth of cinnamon and chilli, and curry leaves right at the back, keeping it savoury. Bright, surprising and properly moreish, never like a dessert.
Ingredients
This recipe makes 4 servings. Change the number and every amount below updates with it. Substitutes for hard-to-find items are in the sidebar.
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- Ripe pineapplepeeled and cut into bite-size chunks1 medium
- Coconut oil2 tbsp
- Mustard seedsor 1 tsp made mustard paste1 tsp
- Onionsliced1
- Garlicsliced2 cloves
- Curry leaves1 sprig
- Pandan (rampe)optional5 cm piece
- Cinnamon1 small stick
- Ground turmeric½ tsp
- Chilli powderadjust to taste1 tsp
- Sri Lankan curry powderroasted or unroasted1 tsp
- Green chilliesslit2
- Thick coconut milk1 cup
- Sugarto balance, optional1-2 tsp
- Saltto taste
- Maldive fish flakesoptional, leave out for vegan1 tsp
Method
Follow these 6 steps. Each one explains not just what to do, but why it matters.
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- 01
Prepare the Pineapple
Peel the pineapple, cut out the spiky eyes, and chop the flesh into bite-size chunks. Keep the trimmed core, chop it small, and add it in too.
Get the cutting right and the rest is easy. You want chunks big enough to hold their shape and give a proper juicy bite, about the size of a large dice, not so small they dissolve into the gravy. Taste a piece raw as you go: that tells you how sweet or sour your fruit actually is, so you know how much chilli and sugar you'll want later. And the juice on the board? Tip it into the bowl with the chunks. That juice carries the brightest acidity and seasons the whole pot.
Tip: Don't toss the core. Trim out the woody centre, chop it small, and it softens beautifully and adds extra body to the curry.
- 02
Temper the Mustard and Aromatics
Heat the coconut oil over medium heat and drop in the mustard seeds. When they start to pop, add the curry leaves, pandan and cinnamon, then the onion, garlic and slit green chillies. Cook until the onion softens.
Listen for the mustard seeds first. They sputter and crackle in the hot oil within seconds, throwing off a sharp nutty pungency that's the backbone of this curry. Let them pop, but don't let them burn or they turn bitter. The curry leaves snap and release their savoury, citrus-edged scent the instant they hit the oil, and the cinnamon adds a warm sweetness underneath. Once the onion goes translucent and starts to turn at the edges, the whole kitchen smells rounded, the heat from the chillies softened by something gentle and sweet.
Tip: If you're using mustard paste instead of seeds, stir it in with the ground spices in the next step rather than tempering it in oil, where it would scorch.
- 03
Bloom the Ground Spices
Turn the heat down and stir in the turmeric, chilli powder and curry powder, along with the Maldive fish if you're using it. Cook for just a few seconds until fragrant.
This quick toast wakes the ground spices up so the curry never tastes raw or dusty. You'll see the turmeric flare gold and smell the chilli and curry powder turn deep and toasty almost at once. The window is short, though: turmeric scorches and goes bitter if it sits naked in hot oil, so keep everything moving and add the pineapple before it catches. If you're adding Maldive fish, it goes in here, and its savoury, almost smoky depth melts into the oil and spreads through the whole gravy.
Tip: Lower the flame before the powders go in. They only need a few seconds, and a cooler pan gives you a margin so the turmeric doesn't burn.
- 04
Add the Pineapple and Let It Soak up the Spice
Tip in the pineapple chunks with all their juice and stir so every piece gets coated in the spiced oil. Let them cook for 2-3 minutes.
Watch the pan when the fruit goes in. The juice sizzles and starts to reduce, the pineapple edges turn glossy and take on the golden colour of the spice, and the smell shifts from sharp and raw to warm and caramelised. Those couple of minutes aren't about cooking the fruit through, pineapple is already tender. It's about marrying it to the spice so the heat and pungency soak in instead of just sitting on top. Stir gently, not roughly, so the chunks stay whole.
Tip: Let the pineapple juice bubble and reduce a little before the coconut milk goes in. Concentrating it now deepens the sweet-sour flavour of the finished gravy.
- 05
Simmer in Coconut Milk
Pour in the thick coconut milk, add salt and bring it to a gentle simmer. Cook uncovered for 8-10 minutes until the gravy turns glossy and the pineapple is tender.
This is where three loud flavours settle into one. As the coconut milk warms and reduces, the gravy turns creamy and golden, mellowing the chilli and rounding off the sharp mustard so nothing feels harsh. Keep it at a lazy simmer rather than a hard boil. Thick coconut milk splits into oily flecks if it bubbles too fiercely, so stir now and then so it doesn't catch. The pineapple softens and turns almost translucent at the edges while still holding its shape, and the gravy thickens just enough to coat the back of a spoon.
Tip: If the gravy reduces too far before you're happy with it, loosen it with a splash of warm water, not more coconut milk. More coconut milk would dull the bright flavours.
- 06
Balance the Sweet, Sour and Heat
Taste the gravy and adjust. A little sugar if it's too sharp, more chilli if it needs heat, a pinch more salt to pull it together. Simmer for one more minute, then take it off the heat.
This last minute is the whole point of the dish, so don't skip the tasting. A ripe, sweet pineapple may need almost no sugar and a touch more chilli to keep it from going flat. A tart, underripe one may want a teaspoon of sugar to round the edges. You're chasing that moment where the first taste is sweet, the second is sour, and the heat arrives a beat later and lingers, with the salt tying it all together. Trust your tongue over any measurement. The fruit is different every time, and a good pineapple curry is the one you balanced, not the one you measured.
Tip: Let it rest off the heat for a few minutes before serving. Like most Sri Lankan curries, the flavours settle and deepen as it sits, and it tastes even better the next day.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Cutting the pineapple too small, so it disintegrates into the gravy instead of giving juicy, distinct bites.
- Burning the mustard seeds or the turmeric turns the whole curry bitter. Temper the seeds just until they pop, and toast the powders for only seconds.
- Boiling the coconut milk hard splits it into oily, grainy flecks. Keep it at a gentle simmer.
- Adding too much sugar, especially with canned pineapple in syrup, tips the curry straight into dessert. You want it savoury, not sweet.
- Skipping the taste-and-balance step at the end is a mistake. Every pineapple is different, and the dish lives or dies on getting the sweet-sour-hot balance right.
- Over-simmering turns the fruit into jam. Pineapple is already tender, so it only needs enough time to take on the spice.
Serving Ideas
- As the bright, surprising dish on a rice and curry plate, set it next to milder curries that let it shine.
- With plain or red rice and a creamy dhal. The sweet-sour heat cuts straight through the richness.
- Next to a coconut sambol like pol sambol. The cool, fresh coconut balances the spicy fruit.
- Alongside a mild cashew or pumpkin curry. That sweet and savoury contrast works really well together.
- Spoon it over rice as a tangy counterpoint to a grilled or fried main.
Building a whole plate around it? Start from our vegetarian rice and curry menu, which sets out what to cook alongside it and in what order.
Storage and Make-Ahead
Keeps for 3 to 4 days in a sealed container in the fridge. The flavour deepens overnight as the spices settle into the fruit. Reheat gently over low heat with a splash of water so the coconut milk does not split. Don't freeze it. Pineapple turns soft and watery once thawed.
Two Ways to Cook It
Use drained canned pineapple chunks, made mustard paste stirred in with the ground spices, and tinned coconut milk straight from the can. Skip the pandan and the Maldive fish. Lean on a ready-made Sri Lankan curry powder, and simmer gently in a non-stick pan. Taste at the end to balance the sweet, sour and heat.
Use a fresh, slightly underripe pineapple cut into chunks with the core, freshly tempered whole mustard seeds, and freshly pressed thick coconut milk. Include the pandan and cinnamon. Add a little Maldive fish for savoury depth, and finish in a clay pot over a low flame for a rounder, earthier curry.
Lighter and Healthier Version
Pineapple curry is already on the lighter side. It's built on fruit rather than fried vegetables, and it's naturally plant-based when you leave out the optional Maldive fish. A few small changes trim the fat and sugar further while keeping that bright, balanced character.
Lean on Light Coconut Milk
Swap thick coconut milk for light (reduced-fat) coconut milk, or thin the full-fat tin with a little water. The fruit's own juices keep the gravy flavourful, so you cut real fat without losing much richness.
Ease off the Oil
Two tablespoons of coconut oil is generous. Halve it and temper the spices in a non-stick pan. The mustard and curry leaves stay just as fragrant on less fat.
Skip the Added Sugar
Choose a ripe, sweet pineapple and you may need no sugar at all. Let the fruit's own sweetness do the balancing. The curry stays naturally light.
Keep It Vegan and Cholesterol-Free
Left without the Maldive fish, the curry has no animal products and no dietary cholesterol. Use a heart-healthy oil sparingly and you have a side that suits most heart-conscious diets.
Frequently Asked Questions
We call Sri Lankan pineapple curry annasi curry in Sinhala. It's chunks of pineapple simmered in coconut gravy with mustard, chilli, turmeric, cinnamon and curry leaves. You get sweet, sour and hot in the same mouthful, and it works as a bright side on a rice and curry plate. Annasi means pineapple, so annasi curry and annasi maluwa both just mean pineapple curry.
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