Easiest Way To Cut A Mango (With Video!)
The easiest hack for cutting or dicing a ripe mango
Servings 2 people
Cost $2
Equipment
- 1 small knife
- 1 large knife
- 1 cutting board
Ingredients
- 1 mango ripe
Instructions
- Wash the mango and stand it upright on its stem on a cutting board. Mango have an oblong shaped pit, so align it so the tallest side is facing up and down rather than side to side.
- Slice down one side of the mango, about 1/4″ past the middle point so you miss cutting into the large seed (if you do feel the seed with your knife, just adjust the angle slightly out so you can keep cutting down).Repeat with the other side.
- Place a double folded tea towel under one of the mango slices and hold it in the palm of your hand. Being careful not to cut through the bottom skin of the mango, use a small knife to make horizontal and vertical incisions into the mango so that you create a grid of cubes.With this method you can control the size of the cube you want so you can do finer cubes for something like salsa or larger cubes for a kabob or to freeze for smoothies.
- Turn the mango skin outward so the cubes pop out and use the small knife to cut the cubes free from the skin (you can also scoop them off with a spoon).
- Lay the remaining slice of mango with the seed flat and cut away the two moon shaped pieces on either side of the seed. Cut off the skin edge and dice the mango fruit into pieces.
Notes
How can you tell if a mango is ripe?
- While a lot of people look at the color of a mango because some varieties start to turn red when ripe, a reddish color doesn’t automatically mean that it’s ripe. So, you’ll also want to give it the squeeze and smell test.
- Give the mango a little squeeze and it should be lightly soft like a ripe peach or avocado would be.
- A mango won’t smell like anything when unripe but should give off a sweet aroma if you smell near the stem when ripe (an overripe one will smell fermented or sour).