Cutting up a Mango

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Follow these steps to get the most out of your mango. My kids and I love eating mango as a snack, or it's great on top of yogurt, in a smoothie, in a salad, muddled into a summery cocktail or in a fruit salsa. Mangos are a great source of Vitamin C, fiber, and Vitamin K, which helps your blood clot, as well as many other vitamins and minerals. A mango that is ready to eat should feel firm but have a little give when squeezed gently.

What You'll Need:

Chef's knife

Cutting board

Step 1

You could totally peel the mango first with a peeler, but I prefer this method. One of the tricky parts of a mango is it has a very large pit. Your goal for the first cut will be to slice off one side of the mango, getting as close to the pit as possible without going through it. It's just kind of a guessing game, and if your knife hits too much resistance, you're too far into the pit and you will have to remove your knife and try again.

You can see here that I got just a little bit of the pit in the piece I cut off (on the right), which is fine because I'll just pare it out with a paring knife.

Step 2

Use your knife to cut a checkerboard pattern into the side of mango, cutting to the skin but not through it.

I usually do all my vertical cuts first, then my horizontal.

Step 3

Use both hands on the edges of the mango piece to gently flip the section inside out.

As is, this would add a beautiful bit of interest to a large fruit platter put out at an event.

Step 4

Use a chef's knife or paring knife to gently cut the squares off the section. I start with the ones in the center, since they are usually the biggest and easiest to nab.

Step 5

Repeat steps 1-4 with the remaining sides of mango. Once you have the first side off, it's easier to judge where the pit is with the remaining pieces.

The mango I was working with was so juicy, I ended up pulling off some of the bigger chunks with my fingers.

Step 6

Now you should just have the center section left. The pit is in there, but you should still have some good pieces of fruit surrounding the pit as well. I use my knife to slice into a meaty-looking section, then just feel where the pit is and slice off irregular-sized pieces.

As you can see, I got a ton more fruit off the pit!