Can You Actually Peel Mangoes Like Bananas? We Tried So You Don't Waste The Fruit

Mango is undoubtedly delicious, and there are so many different ways to enjoy it. The fruit offers a nice range of nutrients, including a variety of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, and is thought to aid in digestion. It also has immune-boosting properties and may help lower the risk of certain cancers. So, why not throw some frozen chunks in a fruit smoothie along with some peach and banana? A side like mango salsa is good any time of the year, and mango chutney is incredibly lovely to have alongside a grilled pork chop. And if I'm eating out and see a dish that has a mango component, it's going to catch my attention and garner immediate consideration. However, I generally steer clear of it in my own kitchen.

While I do enjoy the fruit fresh and keep a bag of dried mango in the house, like many, I do not enjoy the fuss and muss of trying to pick a good one and then having to take it home and peel it. It's messy, sticky, and presents way too many opportunities for me to accidentally cut myself. And when it's all said and done, I feel like I end up throwing more mango away than I get to keep for myself.

But what if there was a way to circumvent such issues — for instance, peeling it like a banana? Well, that could be a game-changer.

I have had the privilege of working with some great chefs in the kitchen who have given me advice on the best methods for handling, cutting, and preparing a wide array of foods. Sadly, mango was not one of them. So, when I saw someone peel a mango like a banana, my interest was piqued.

I will admit that I have become jaded over the years from disappointing tips, tricks, and mango-peeling hacks that I have come across that have yielded unsatisfying results. However, I have hope that the banana peeling method just might work. I've tried something similar before with avocados, so I figured, why not a mango? Both fruits have a thick skin and a large pit in the middle, which would lead you to believe they might work the same.

The skin is one of the biggest hurdles you must contend with when cutting a mango. Just like the seed, it doesn't seem to want to give up the fleshy meat it holds. Trying to cut it can be tricky and hazardous to the hands if you lack proper knife skills. And if you manage to peel a mango without cutting yourself, the chances are high that you left too much skin on or took too much mango off. If peeling one is as easy as it looks, it could entirely change the mango-eating game.

In order to test this approach, I purchased four mangos of varying ripeness. I wanted to make sure that this didn't just work on a firm, unripe mango, as that would defeat the entire purpose of the experiment.

I armed myself with my trusty cutting board and an array of knives — cutting, serrated, and paring. The skin was a bit too thick for the simple blade, so I opted for the serrated knife over the short paring blade to score the mango in quarters from the bottom to just above the stem. Once the initial crosscuts were made, the serrated knife slid easily down all sides of the mango.

I didn't have to push very hard at the junction of the cuts in order to loosen a corner that I could get my nail and subsequent fingertip beneath to begin pulling the skin. And without much effort at all, it did indeed pull away from the meat quite quickly and cleanly. I was incredibly surprised! It wasn't messy, and it didn't take so much force that juices ran, even in the ripest of the mangoes. As easy as that, my question was answered: Yes, you can peel a mango like a banana.

The peeling of the skin away from the mango by scoring and pulling from the bottom was simple and effective; there is no doubt about that. But it did leave me standing there with a slick piece of fruit that I still hadn't successfully slivered or cubed, which left me feeling lost — now what?

Trying to cut the fruit away from the seed without the skin on was a very slippery undertaking. So, what I had actually achieved was merely exchanging one obstacle for another. While I had gotten most of the peel away from the mango successfully, it became quite an arduous task to then remove the mango from the seed. For the ripest of the mangoes, the meat fell into a juicy, pulpy mess as I attempted to handle the skinned fruit and cut it with a knife. And even when using a proper mango slicer, the fruit was so slick it kept slipping as I tried to press the slicer down. I even tried some other hacks I had seen, but they simply stood no chance against the slippery fruit.

Yes, it is possible to peel a mango like a banana. That is, if you do it while the mango is whole. Once you slice the fruit, don't bother trying to peel the skin away. It simply breaks apart and does not work.

Going past the question of possibility, I think a better inquiry is — should you peel a mango like a banana? I don't have a definitive answer to that question. If you already have your own method for cutting fresh mango, I would most likely stick with what you are doing. If you are a curious person, you may want to give this technique a go and see if it is something that helps or hinders how you normally do things, but it may not be worth it. If you are new to mangoes and haven't found the easiest way to peel them, then feel free to try it because there's a chance you might like it.

For me, I sadly must admit that mangoes will be going back on my list of someone else's issues. I will buy mangoes already sliced when they're in season, enjoy my jarred mango salsa that I purchase year-round, and keep my eye out for mango on menus. But peeling a mango like a banana is not something that has solved any problems I had before.