How to Cut a Mango

My seven-year old daughter asked me to create a blog post on how to cut a mango, so here it is!

This may sound funny, but whenever we eat mango, I always think of my grandparents. My grandfather showed me how to cut a mango (his way) when I was a little girl, and now I always cut it this way for Little One’s lunches.

When I was a little girl, I spent a lot of time at my grandparents’ house.  Sometimes, my parents used to drop us off at my grandparents’ house early in the morning so they could take care of Baby Bro and bring Middle Bro and me to school.  What I remember the most was my grandparents making us a hearty breakfast every morning.

Sometimes breakfast consisted of champorado and sometimes it consisted of a soft boiled egg, toasted French bread with ricotta cheese and strawberry jam, and mango.

My grandfather always cut the mango a certain way that made it easier for us to eat it.  Now, my Little One enjoys having mango prepared the way my grandfather prepared it for us.

How to Cut a Mango

There are many ways to cut a mango. One of my grandfather’s methods is to wash the mango, slice the mango “flesh” on both sides of the pit/seed, take each piece and score on an angle making a checkerboard and then turn the sliced mango pieces out. Little One likes to eat the mango that way.

I think it makes it easy to eat the mango and it’s also really pretty to display the mango that way. If you’re dicing the mango for a recipe (like a salad or salsa), this way makes it easy to just take your knife and cube the mango.

I even put it in Little One’s lunches.

Mango Salsa

Fresh Mango Salsa is great to serve with fish (especially in fish tacos!), or with chicken. I love the sweet and spicy element that mango salsa brings.

Ingredients
2-3 ripe mangoes, diced (see Little One’s video)
1 small red onion, choppped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
handful of cilantro, chopped (about 1/4 c)
1 lime, juiced
1/4 tsp sea salt
Optional:
* freshly cracked black pepper to taste
* 1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
You can garnish with chopped green onion too, if you wish.

Instructions
In a medium sized bowl, add chopped ingredients. Pour lemon juice, mix well, and add seasoning to taste. Let rest for 20 minutes or longer before serving. The salsa’s flavours are enhanced if you let it rest longer. Serve with fish tacos, chicken, or whatever else you wish.

It’s interesting how certain things trigger memories and emotional responses. I never really thought of how the simple experience of being in my grandparents’ kitchen thirty-something years ago and watching my grandfather show us how to cut a mango would be carried out into my adult life. Now Little One knows how to cut a mango this way.