How to Eat a Mango Seed


 by Paula Quinene

Mangoes are rich in vitamins C and A and are excellent in fruit smoothies and protein shakes, especially if you freeze the mango ahead of time. You can certainly suck, slurp and eat the fruit and fiber right off a mango seed without tearing into the seed and digesting it.

Mangoes are rich in vitamins C and A and are excellent in fruit smoothies and protein shakes, especially if you freeze the mango ahead of time. You can certainly suck, slurp and eat the fruit and fiber right off a mango seed without tearing into the seed and digesting it. The seed of an unripe, green mango is soft and may be easily cut with a knife compared to the tough, fibrous seed of a ripe mango.

Just Dig In

Step 1

Thoroughly rinse and scrub the skin of a ripe mango using the rough side of a sponge and soapy water; rinse the soap off.

Step 2

Sink the top of your teeth into the mango skin, grasping it with your bottom teeth to peel the skin away from the mango seed. Repeat this to remove two more strips of the skin, creating a large surface of visible flesh.

Step 3

Bite into the flesh as you would a peeled apple. Continue to strip the mango with your teeth, eating the flesh as you go along.

Step 4

Hold one short end of a mango seed with your fingers and fingernails, wrapping your teeth and lips around the opposite end. Drag your teeth along this end as you pull the mango seed out of your mouth, scraping away at the residual flesh and fiber. Turn the mango seed around to scrape at the other end with your teeth.

Step 5

Hold one short end of a mango with the fingers of each hand, then bite and scrape your teeth over the center part of the seed.

Step 6

Continue to eat the mango seed at each end and along the center, sucking as much of the flesh off the seed as you can.

Prim and Proper

Step 1

Hold a cleaned mango so that one long, narrow edge of the mango is against a cutting board. Use a knife to slice the mango somewhat off-center, removing a slab of mango skin and flesh. Rotate the mango on the same side 180 degrees to the left and slice off another large slab.

Step 2

Position the smallest point of the mango on the cutting board, then slice off each narrow side of the mango. Score the slabs of mango into cubes without cutting through the skin. Bend the slabs to open up the scored fruit so you can easily bite into the flesh, removing it from the skin.

Step 3

Cut off the skin at the wide tip of the mango where the stem once grew. Bite into and suck the flesh off of this as it is the sweetest part around the ripe mango seed. Bite and suck all around the mango seed to remove residual flesh.

Tip

If you are cubing mango to use in a recipe, save all the seeds in a covered container and place in the fridge; eat the mango seeds later.

warning

Mangoes plants contain urushiol, which is the same chemical that causes allergic reactions to poison ivy. If you are sensitive to poison ivy, consult a doctor before eating mangoes.

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