Papaya Salsa

4.94 from 16 votes

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Papaya Salsa is a wonderful appetizer or side dish that is perfect for many foods, but especially grilled food and smoker recipes!

I was looking for some papaya recipes to accompany a grilled jerk chicken and I totally hit paydirt with this simple papaya salsa. If you want to mix up your salsa game a bit, then you are in luck!

Fresh papaya salad in clear bowl close up
This chunky salsa recipe makes for a great appetizer or garnish.

What is Papaya Salsa?

Confession time. This is my first of what I feel certain is going to be many papaya recipes. Holy delicious! You can actually taste the fun in your mouth with this papaya salsa

Serve it with these flour tortilla chips and you have a match made in culinary heaven!

Knife, cutting board with ginger, garlic, red onion, lime and papaya
This papaya recipe starts off with a lime and a cutting board.

What’s in it?

The base ingredients for this papaya salsa are papaya, lime juice, garlic, and cilantro.

You can add a variety of flavors and spices to this papaya recipe. Simply adjust the amounts to your taste. Some suggestions include.

  • Ginger
  • Shallots
  • Scallions
  • Chili Pepper
  • Salt and Pepper
Chopped vegetable in bowl with spoon near cutting board, knife and kosher salt
Macerate the garlic, scallions and pepper in fresh lime juice.
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How to Papaya Salsa

Use a small bowl and squeeze the juice out of a couple of lime. That tangy goodness is going to help the other ingredients get better acquainted. 

Next, chop up everything else except for the papaya and toss those ingredients in with the fresh lime juice. Mascerating the harsher aromatics like the garlic and scallions will take away their sharp edge and replace it with a mellow and pleasing finish.

Whole cloves, on wood with rolling pin
Crushing whole cloves is easy to do with a rolling pin.

Most of us have ground cloves in our pantry and you may even have whole cloves sitting there as well. You can use the ground cloves if you’re in a pinch but you’ll get a whole higher element of taste by using freshly crushed cloves instead. How do you crush whole cloves? Enter the rolling pin, into this recipe process!

Bowl of chopped vegetables behind split papaya with knife on cutting board
This recipe uses a couple of papayas.

Slice the papaya in half, scrape out the seeds and then peel the skin off with a pairing knife. Experiment and see if it’s easier for you to skin the papaya before slicing it in half. Doing it as I show in the photo above works best for me. The next thing you’ll do is dice the papaya into chunks, about a half-inch in size.

A bowl papaya being mixed with chopped vegetable on board with knife
Add the diced papaya to the other ingredients.

You’re almost finished at this point which is a good thing because things really take a sharp turn toward the delicious side. Grab a chip or tasting spoon and have a little sample of what’s in the bowl. Need more salt? A few more cloves? A touch more of cilantro? How about a little more ground pepper. As I always say when in the kitchen, “Make it your own!”

A close of papaya and Salsa in clear bowl with serving utensil
Enjoy this papaya salsa with chips or as a garnish for grilled meat of seafood.

Looking for more Papaya Recipes? Here are just a few that I think you might like!

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Papaya Salsa Recipe

4.94 from 16 votes
If you’re looking for good papaya recipes than this chunky salsa recipe is a must-make! Use it as an appetizer with chips or as a side dish and garnish for grilled meats and seafood.
Prep: 10 minutes
Total: 10 minutes
Yield: 8

Ingredients 

  • 2 Papaya, Peeled, seeded, cut into 1/2 chunks
  • 2 Scallions, fine chop
  • 3 Garlic Cloves, fine chop
  • 1 Shallot, fine chop
  • 2 Limes, for fresh lime juice
  • 1 pinch Kosher salt
  • Black pepper, to taste
  • 3 tbsp Cilantro, fine chop

Instructions 

  • Squeeze lime juice into a small bowl. then, chop up the cilantro, scallions, shallot, garlic. Add any additional aromatics, herbs, or seasoning that suit your taste. Add them to the lime juice and stir lightly.
  • Add Papaya to the lime juice mixture, gently stir while adding salt and pepper to taste.

Notes

For added variety, dice up some fresh pinapple for this tropical salsa. About a half of small pineapple should be enough to do the trick!

Nutrition

Calories: 25kcal, Carbohydrates: 6g, Protein: 0g, Fat: 0g, Saturated Fat: 0g, Cholesterol: 0mg, Sodium: 9mg, Potassium: 106mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 3g, Vitamin A: 395IU, Vitamin C: 28.1mg, Calcium: 17mg, Iron: 0.3mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Course: Appetizer/Snack, Garnish
Cuisine: Tropical
Tried this recipe?Mention @plattertalk or tag #plattertalk!

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Meet the Platter Talk Guys

Dan & Scott split their time between Wisconsin and Southwest Florida and are dads to six boys. Good food runs through their veins, and they love showing others how to cook easy recipes.

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15 Comments

  1. The recipe ingredients do not list ginger, cloves, or chili pepper. The recipe instructions tell you to add the cilantro in both steps 1 and 2.

    1. Hi Dan, thanks for this question. We have modified the post and instructions to help clarify the recipe.