Mangos are a sweet, tropical super fruit packed with over 20 different vitamins and minerals. But if you’ve ever sliced into one, you may have run into trouble. Learning how to cut a mango makes the task a cinch.
The key to understanding how to dice a mango is in understanding the shape and placement of the seed inside the fruit. The seed is flat and large, running the length of the mango. It’s in the center and if you try to cut all the way through the center of the mango, you will hit the pit and be quite frustrated.
Watch this Video Showing How to Cut a Mango
Time needed: 5 minutes.
HOW TO DICE A MANGO
- Think about the way the mango seed is shaped; it runs through the center of the mango from top to bottom and is flat but wide.
- Place the mango with the stem (wider portion of the fruit) down on the cutting board.
Slice down the length of the mango, just to the outside of the center so that your knife slices parallel to the long flat seed.
- Repeat on the other side of the center so that you have two side chunks and one flat pit piece.
- Cup one mango half skin side down in your palm. Carefully slice lengthwise scores into the flesh, up to the skin, but not going through the skin.
- Slice crosswise to make a grid pattern, again being careful not to slice through the skin.
- Press the skin from the back to invert the mango half, “popping” the fruit from the skin.
- Slice the fruit from the skin or scoop off of the skin with a spoon.
- Repeat for the other half of the mango. You can also slice around the two outer edges of the mango pit if there is flesh there.
Mangos are delicious to eat alone and they also pair well with a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. This mango avocado salsa is one of our absolute favorites! They are also yummy in smoothies or fruit salad. Their firm texture will hold up and they keep their fresh color even after they have been sliced.
If you’d like slices instead of a diced mango, simply follow the same steps as above but skip over the step where you cut cross sections into the mango flesh. This is so much easier than peeling the mango and trying to cut slices. The mango flesh is slippery and squishy so it’s easiest to do the cutting while it’s still in its skin.
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