Mangoes are one of the best fruits – juicy, full of flavor, and with a great texture. Get them when they’re perfectly ripe and it’s like eating a bit of sunshine. It’s instant happiness. But, cutting these fruits can be difficult if you’ve never done it before, particularly because the insides can be quite slippery to hold onto while the skin is rather thick. Here are a few simple steps to cutting mango the right way every time. Plus it’s much quicker this way which only gets you to the best part even quicker- the eating!
The first thing is is to identify the top from the bottom and the sides. Red mangoes like the Irwin variety may look round or oval from certain angles, but they actually hide a flat, wide seed inside. They are sort of rectangular when viewed from the top, which will bear a mark or remnant of the stem. The thinner sides are called the shoulders and the fleshy sides are the cheeks.
To get the mango to stand up while you cut, slice a small piece from the top to make it level. Turn that side down so the bottom is in the air. Cut along the line of the cheek, avoiding the seed in the center. If you hit something hard you’ve hit the seed and need to start further from the center. Do this for both sides and you’ve removed most of the tasty flesh from the seed already.
With your trusty knife trim along the pit where there is still some flesh, leaving the skin on. Run the knife between the skin and flesh of these strips then chop into cubes.
For the larger pieces make a grid pattern on the cheeks with the knife (with the skin side down and flesh side up). Cut through the yellow part, but not through the skin. Then flip the skin inside out and you can easily remove each little cube of mango flesh from the skin. Then repeat for the other side.