How to Cut a Mango

Learn how to cut a mango quickly — and safely! — using this guide. You’ll also learn how to store cut mango, how to peel a mango, and the many ways to use mangoes!  

Why You Should Learn How to Cut a Mango 

Cutting a mango is fairly intuitive, but if you don’t use the correct technique you could wind up wasting a lot of the juicy flesh (it gets stuck to the seed in the middle and sometimes to the skin). Mangoes are pricier, so you want to eat every possible bite! 

Mango flesh is quite slippery, so knowing how to cut up a mango properly is useful. 

This post will explain how to cut up a mango, how to choose mangoes that are ripe enough for eating, how to store cut mangoes, and more! 

The Different Types of Mangoes 

Just like apples, there are lots of different types of mangoes on the market. However, we’re limited on the varieties we can find in US supermarkets since mangoes are almost exclusively shipped to the country from more tropical climes. 

A few key varieties of mangoes to know include: 

• Haden: Most widely grown in the world. Skin is green, yellow, and red. The green bits turn yellow as the mango ripens. 
• Tommy Atkins: What you’ll find in most US grocery stores. Fairly large in size, with red, dark green, and yellow skin. You can’t tell whether this variety of mango is ripe just by looking at it, so you’ll need to smell and gently squeeze it to test. 
• Honey: Also called Ataulfo mangoes. Their skin is a deep yellow that wrinkles slightly when ripe. They’re smaller in size and the flesh is buttery smooth. 

Other varieties you might see at your local grocery store include: Kent, Keitt, or Francis mangoes. 

What Do Mangoes Taste Like? 

It’s difficult to describe exactly how a mango tastes because it tastes just like … well, like mango! 

Mangoes are generally sweet and juicy, but some varieties have a subtle tartness to them. Mango flesh is often buttery smooth, but a few varieties have more fibrous flesh. 

I’ve read some articles online that describe the flavor of mango as a blend of peach, pineapple, and apricot. Sounds fairly accurate to me! 

When Are Mangoes in Season? 

As with any food or veggie, different varieties of mango have different growing seasons. Here are the main growing seasons to note: 

• Honey: March to July 
• Haden: March to May, with more limited availability throughout the rest of the year
• Tommy Atkins: Early March through mid-July, with limited availability through December

How to Tell If a Mango Is Ripe 

Caution: color alone isn’t the best indicator of a mango’s ripeness! Mangoes can be yellow, red, green, or some combination of all of these colors. This makes it tricky to tell if a mango is ripe just by looking at it. 

To test a mango’s ripeness, do the following: 

• Smell – it should be fragrant at the stem 
• Gently squeeze – the flesh should give slightly under your thumb, like an avocado or peach 

If you accidentally cut into a mango before it’s fully ripe, it’s still safe to eat. It will taste more sour and won’t be as juicy,but you can eat a mango at any stage of ripeness.

Tip: Note that mangoes ripen from the seed outwards. Once refrigerated, they will NOT ripen further. 

Tools Needed for Cutting Mangoes 

Peeling and cutting a mango requires minimal tools. The key items you’ll need are a cutting board, a sharp knife, and a spoon. Other tools to have on hand are: 

• Cutting board — If the cutting board slides around on your countertop, place a clean kitchen towel underneath it to hold it steady. 
• Paring knife – Make sure it’s sharpened properly before cutting and slicing the mango. 
• Spoon – For scooping out the flesh. 
• Vegetable peeler — For peeling the mango (optional; only needed if you don’t use the spoon method) 
• Mango slicer —You can easily cut a mango using just a knife, but if you’ll be cutting lots of mangoes you might find a mango slicer helpful. 
• Airtight container – For storing leftover cut mango. 

How to Cut a Mango 5 Ways

In the following section, I’ve explained how to cut up a mango five different ways. I don’t like to peel the mango before cutting it because the flesh is incredibly slippery and it’s easy to cut yourself. 

Regardless of whether you peel the mango first or not, please ALWAYS work with the mango on your cutting board. Never try to peel or slice it while holding it in your hand. 

It’s too easy to cut yourself, especially if the fruit is very ripe! The knife will cut through it like butter. 

How to Cut a Mango Into Slices

1. Lay the mango on its side on a cutting board. Carefully cut off the stem (you want to create a flat portion for the mango to stand up on). 
2. Turn the mango upright, onto the flat surface where the stem was. 
3. Carefully run your knife lengthwise down the mango, hugging the edge of the knife as close as possible to the skinny seed inside the mango. You’ll wind up with two large pieces plus two smaller, thinner pieces. 
4. Working one piece at a time, place the cut mango skin side down on the cutting board. Carefully run the tip of a knife down the flesh lengthwise to create slices, being careful not to cut through the skin. You can make the slices as thick or thin as you like. 
5. Use the edge of a spoon to gently scoop the mango slices out of the skin. If the mango isn’t very ripe, the flesh will be firmer and you’ll have to apply more pressure to separate it from the skin. Ripe mango should pop right out! 

How to Cut a Mango Into Cubes

1. Lay the mango on its side on a cutting board. Carefully cut off the stem (you want to create a flat portion for the mango to stand up on). 
2. Turn the mango upright, onto the flat surface where the stem was. 
3. Carefully run your knife lengthwise down the mango, hugging the edge of the knife as close as possible to the skinny seed inside the mango. You’ll wind up with two large pieces plus two smaller, thinner pieces. 
4. Working one piece at a time, place the cut mango skin side down on the cutting board. Carefully run the tip of a knife down the flesh lengthwise to create slices, being careful not to cut through the skin. 
5. Then, run the tip of a knife crosswise to cut the mango into cubes. You can make the mango cubes as large or small as you like. 
6. Use the edge of a spoon to gently scoop the mango cubes out of the skin. If the mango isn’t very ripe, the flesh will be firmer and you’ll have to apply more pressure to separate it from the skin. Ripe mango should pop right out! 

How to Julienne a Mango 

1. Lay the mango on its side on a cutting board. Carefully cut off the stem (you want to create a flat portion for the mango to stand up on). 
2. Turn the mango upright, onto the flat surface where the stem was. 
3. Carefully run your knife lengthwise down the mango, hugging the edge of the knife as close as possible to the skinny seed inside the mango. You’ll wind up with two large pieces plus two smaller, thinner pieces. 
4. Use the edge of a spoon to gently scoop the mango out of the skin. If the mango isn’t very ripe, the flesh will be firmer and you’ll have to apply more pressure to separate it from the skin. Ripe mango should pop right out! 
5. Place one of the larger pieces of peel mango flat side down on your cutting board. Place the palm of your hand on top of the mango to hold it in place. Place your knife just above the bottom of the mango and run it crosswise through the flesh to create a thin layer. Remove that layer to the side of your cutting board and repeat this slicing process until you have 3 to 4 thin slices of mango. 
6. Arrange the thin mango slices in a stack and cut into ⅛-inch strips to julienne.  

Tip: You can also julienne a mango using a julienne peeler. However, this only works if the mango is slightly under ripe, otherwise the peeler won’t slice through the flesh cleanly. 

How to Cut a Mango Hedgehog 

1. Lay the mango on its side on a cutting board. Carefully cut off the stem (you want to create a flat portion for the mango to stand up on). 
2. Turn the mango upright, onto the flat surface where the stem was. 
3. Carefully run your knife lengthwise down the mango, hugging the edge of the knife as close as possible to the skinny seed inside the mango. You’ll wind up with two large pieces plus two smaller, thinner pieces. Only the larger pieces can be used to make mango hedgehogs (you can eat the smaller pieces as a snack!).
4. Working one piece at a time, place the cut mango skin side down on the cutting board. Carefully run the tip of a knife down the flesh lengthwise to create slices, being careful not to cut through the skin. 
5. Then, run the tip of the knife crosswise to cut the mango into cubes. You can make the mango cubes as large or small as you like. 
6. Hold one of the mango pieces skin-side down and gently press upwards from the center of the fruit using just your thumbs. The mango cubes should fan out and stick up like a hedgehog! 
7. To eat, hold the mango piece from the bottom and scrape the cubes off of the skin using your teeth. 

How to Cut a Mango Flower 

1. Lay the mango on its side on a cutting board. Carefully cut off the stem (you want to create a flat portion for the mango to stand up on). 
2. Use a small paring knife or a vegetable peeler to peel the skin off of the mango. Try to remove as little of the juicy mango flesh as possible! 
3. Stand the peeled mango upright on the flat portion where the stem used to be. To make the first “petal,” place your paring knife horizontally at roughly the center of the mango. 
4. Work the paring knife into the flesh of the mango, gently tilting it in a downward scooping motion so that the top of the “petal” is slightly thinner than the base. Do NOT cut all the way through the mango! You want the base of the “petal” to be thick enough to hold onto the rest of the fruit without falling off. 
5. Work your way around the mango to finish all of the bottom “petals.” You will only be cutting the mango from the center downwards at this stage. 
6. To cut the next layer of “petals,” place the tip of your paring knife about ¼ inch above one of the base “petals.” (The exact placement will be determined by how large your mango is.) Cut out the top “petals” using a downward slicing motion. Again, be careful not to cut through the flesh as you want the mango pieces to remain stuck to the inner seed. 
7. Continue working your way up the mango, creating layers of “petals” until you hit the skinny seed in the middle of the mango and can’t cut another layer. The “petals” will become smaller and smaller as you work your way up to the tip of the mango. 

Tips for Cutting Mangoes

• Wash them first — Even though you won’t be eating the mango skin (although technically you can!), you’ll still be cutting into the skin and through the flesh. You don’t want any dirt or bacteria from the skin to contaminate the flesh! 
• Choose mango that are ripe but firm — Overripe mangoes have flesh that is too soft and mushy to cut properly. 
• There’s no need to peel using a knife or vegetable peeler — You can peel a mango before slicing or cubing it, but peeling takes longer, the flesh is slippery and tough to hold, and it often wastes lots of flesh. Using the sharp edge of a spoon to scoop out the flesh is my preference! (The only time you must peel the mango prior to cutting it is if you’re cutting it into a mango flower.) 
• Always work with the mango on a cutting board, never in your hand — Whether it’s peeling, slicing, or de-seeding a mango, you should never hold it in your hand when taking a knife to it! Mango flesh is slippery and you can easily cut yourself. 
• Different varieties of mangoes have different seed sizes — It will take some practice before you’re able to anticipate the size of the seed you’ll be cutting around when cutting up a mango. 
• A mango’s ripeness determines how much flesh you can cut off — If the mango is very ripe, the flesh will come right off the seed. An underripe mango will have firmer flesh and more of it will stick to the seed.  
• No matter how you cut a mango, there will always be some flesh clinging to the skin — Just gnaw on it, cook’s treat! 

How to Cut a Mango FAQs 

Got questions about how to cut mangoes? Here are the answers to a few commonly asked questions. Feel free to leave any other questions in the comments on this post and I’ll respond with answers.

Can you speed ripening up? How?

Mangoes ripen quite well after being picked. It’s best to let them sit on your counter undisturbed until fully ripened.

However, if you don’t have the time or patience to wait for mangoes to ripen on your countertop, place them in a bag (or simply in the same fruit bowl) with an apple or banana. 

Ethylene gas is produced by both mangoes and bananas / apples. The bag traps in that gas and subsequently speeds up the ripening process. 

The bag trick ripens mangoes in 2 to 4 days, depending on how ripe they were to begin with. 

Tip: Only put fully ripened mangoes into the fridge. Unripe mangoes won’t ripen properly if chilled. 

Does a mango have a pit, seed, or stone? 

The hard center of the mango is the seed! It’s typically long and skinny, and runs vertically through the center of the flesh. 

Can you eat mango peel? 

Yes, mango peel is edible (provided you don’t have an allergy, of course!). 

However, raw mango skin is fairly tough and I personally don’t prefer eating it that way. I haven’t experimented with preparing mango skin for consumption, but it’s technically safe to eat! 

Can you cut a mango in half? 

Yes and no. The seed is in the very center and must be cut around. The best you can do is cut as close to the seed as possible to remove two large “halves” of the mango on either side. 

What’s the easiest way to cut a mango?

The easiest way to cut a mango is by cutting it into slices or cubes (tutorials 1 and 2 in this post). 

I cut the mango flesh away from the seed, then scoop out the flesh with a spoon before cutting it. So easy! 

Can you eat mangoes without cutting them? 

Technically you can eat a mango like you would an apple, but the tough skin isn’t to everyone’s liking. 

How to store fresh cut mangoes

Store cut mango in an airtight container in the fridge 5 to 7 days.  

You can also freeze mango slices, chunks, and cubes for up to 6 months (no need to blanch first!). 

I recommend placing the cubes or slices on a parchment paper-lined baking tray, freezing until solid, then transferring to a freezer bag. This prevents the mango from forming one giant clump as it freezes. 

How long does cut mango last in the fridge? 

Cut mango will last 5 to 7 days in the fridge, if stored properly.

Try Cutting Mangoes at Home! 

Next time you buy a mango, cut it up using one of the methods shared in this post! 

Did you think these tutorials were easy to follow? Leave a comment below and give it a review for others to see what you thought.

On Instagram? Share your photo and tag me with @goodlifeeats and #goodlifeeatsrecipes. I’d love to see a photo of your cut mango! 

More Knife Skills Tutorials: 

Learn how to supreme an orange with this simple tutorial! In this post, I’m sharing the best way to segment an orange, and how to remove the white pith and skin! 

Don’t waste any part of that fresh pineapple! This post shares how to cut a pineapple six different ways, as well as ideas for using the pineapple top and tough skin. 

Chocolate curls are easy to make, and they add a touch of elegance to any cake, cupcake, trifle, or cheesecake! In this post, I’ve provided step-by-step instructions on how to make chocolate curls.

Learn how to cut an avocado quickly — and safely! — using this guide. You’ll also learn how to store cut avocado, how to peel an avocado, and the many ways to use avocados! 

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