Mango Salsa

(Ellie Krieger at foodnetwork.com)

1 mango, peeled and diced (there’s a secret to doing this that I’ll share in a minute)

1/2 c peeled, diced cucumber (about 1/2” dice)

1 T finely chopped jalapeno

1/3 c diced red onion

1 T lime juice

1/3 c roughly chopped cilantro leaves

Salt and pepper to taste

Combine everything but the salt and pepper and mix well. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

It seems like peeling and dicing a mango should be easy, but there’s a big, flat, pesky seed in the middle that complicates things. Here are directions from mango.com.

Start by washing the mango, then stand it on your cutting board stem end down and hold on to it. Place your knife about ¼” from the widest center line and cut down through the mango. Flip the mango around and repeat on the other side. You should have two side pieces with no seed and one center piece that is mostly seed. Cut parallel lines about 1/2” apart (or however you want your pieces to be) into the flesh of one side, being careful not to cut through the skin. Turn it around a quarter of the way and cut another set of lines about 1/2” apart to make a checkerboard pattern. To release it from the skin, either use a large spoon to scoop it out (like you would an avocado), or turn the piece inside out by pushing the skin up from underneath and scrape the mango off the skin with a knife or large skin. Do the same thing with the other side piece.