How to Dice a Mango

Mangoes are not the easiest fruit to dice...mainly because of their pit. Mangoes have a long flat white pit that is generally 1/2- to 3/4-inch thick inside. The pit is not removable like a pit in an avacado, so instead of attempting to cut the mango in half and remove the pit, you need to locate the pit and cut the flesh around it. Once you understand where the pit is and how to cut around it, the rest is easy.

To find the pit, tilt the mango on its side. Notice how the stem is not in the center. The pit will be from end to end lengthwise in the mango adjacent to the stem.

With the mango on its side just as it is the above photo, I cut off the front side of the mango that you can see revealing the white pit. It's not what you were expecting the pit to look like was it? See how the pit goes lengthwise right at the level of the stem?


Instead of cutting a slice as I just did, let's go back to the mango. Locate the stem with the mango on its side, and cut on each side of the stem, as shown below. This will give you two fleshy cheeks.

Here is one of the cheeks.

With the cheek in the palm on your hand, carefully cut a cross-hatch pattern in the flesh, making sure that you do not cut the skin of the mango.

Apply pressure to the ends of the mango and gently press upward in the center to turn the diced pulp inside out of the skin.

From here you are at the home stretch! Cut along the skin to remove the diced pulp and discard the skin.

You will need to repeat the process with the remaining cheek. Also, there is more flesh on either side of the pit on your mango. Repeat the entire process to remove two smaller cheeks of flesh from the pit...and your done!