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Homemade Mango Salsa
By Alexandra Stafford
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Last Updated: 03/27/2025
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
In this refreshing homemade salsa, mangoes stand in for tomatoes, and the addition of red bell pepper offers crunch and sweetness. Serve with tortilla chips or spoon over your favorite tacos 🌮
If you’re having a hard time waiting for summer tomatoes to arrive, ripe for fresh pico de gallo, try making one with mangoes, which are in season now (late March through September). Prized for their sweetness and creamy texture, champagne mangoes are small and tear-dropped in shape. You may see these at the market before the larger, reddish-green Florida varieties arrive.
In this fresh salsa, mangoes replace tomatoes, but the familiar elements are all present: red onion, jalapeño, cilantro, fresh lime juice, and salt. Diced red bell pepper, not a traditional salsa ingredient, offers additional crunch and sweetness.
I find this salsa addictive, perfect served with tortilla chips, of course, but also delicious spooned over tacos of all kinds (see below).
Homemade Mango Salsa, Step by Step
First, gather your ingredients: mangoes, red onion, jalapeño or other hot chili, cilantro, limes, red bell pepper and salt.
Next, peel and dice your mangoes.
Chop the cilantro: remember, you can use every part of the cilantro, stems and all:
Once everything is chopped and the limes are juiced…
… combine the mangoes, onions, and peppers in a bowl:
Season with salt and lime juice and toss to combine:
Finally, add the cilantro:
And stir one last time…
… before serving with chips…
… or spooning over tacos 🌮
Homemade Mango Salsa
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 3 cups 1x
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
Flavored with lime juice and salt, and mixed with cilantro, onion, bell peppers, and jalapeños, this mango salsa is so fresh and flavorful!
Mangoes: Depending on the size of your mangoes, you’ll need more or less. For this recipe, I often use 4 champagne mangoes or two of the larger more common mangoes found at most supermarkets.
Ingredients
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 jalapeño or other hot chili, such as Serrano
- 2 to 4 mangoes, see notes above
- ½ medium red onion
- ½ cup roughly chopped cilantro
- ¼ cup fresh-squeezed lime juice, plus more to taste
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt (Diamond Crystal brand or half as much if using Morton or fine sea salt), plus more to taste
- tortilla chips for serving
Instructions
- Cut the red pepper in half, core and remove the stem and seeds. With a knife, remove the white interior membranes, then finely dice the pepper. Place in a large bowl. Repeat with the jalapeño.
- Peel the mangoes: slice off each narrow end, then stand the mango upright. Use a knife to slice away the skin, hugging the skin as much as possible to leave as much fruit on the mango as possible. Slice the flesh off the pit, then finely dice it and add it to the bowl.
- Finely dice the onion and add it to the bowl.
- Sprinkle the 1/2 teaspoon of salt into the bowl along with the 1/4 cup lime juice. Using a large spoon, toss to combine. Taste. Add more salt and/or lime juice to taste.
- Add the cilantro and stir one last time. Taste again, this time with a tortilla chip, then adjust if necessary one last time with a sprinkle of more salt or lime juice.
- Transfer to a serving bowl and serve with tortilla chips.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Appetizer
- Method: no-cook
- Cuisine: American, Mexican
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
11 Comments on “Homemade Mango Salsa”
Mmm. That looks absolutely delicious. 🙂
You’ll have to try it — it couldn’t be simpler to prepare.
super good. i decided to make it cause i had some mango pico at “beat kitchen” in chicago and it was so good i wanted to make my own. i love it with chips and it’s really good in a taco.
Great to hear! This is an old favorite. Thanks for writing 🙂
How long can you keep this, I’m wondering how much ahead of time I can make it before the mango looses its color?
Hi! I wouldn’t make this much more than a few hours a head of time.
I just bought a big green mango so I’m glad I found your recipe. I’ll try to get a picture.
Greetings, Ali, from sunny Venezuela where the mangoes are beginning to ripen in their millions on the trees.
I offer you an alternative method to treating a mango.
do not peel the mango. Lay it on its back and with a very sharp knife slice down in a large curve to avoid cutting into the seed, Do this on both sides.
You will now have two halves. Lay them on their skin side and with the sharp knife make horizontal and vertical cuts to the size of cubes you want. DO NOT ierce the skin.
Turn the half mango inside out pressing on the skin from below.
You will be presented with a collecion of cubes for your salsa, carefully removing them from the skin with your knife.
Finally, carefully cut the rest of the flesh from the seed, and trim to smaller cubes.
That is the ‘polite’ way to eat them in this country.
Raymond, your devotee in this country.
Raymond, thank you for this! I have one mango left from the stash I recently purchased, and I am going to try your method today. Love this idea so much! Appreciate you taking the time to share 🙂
Hello Ali:
I made this today. I was a little skeptical about this recipe, but it turned out great!
Mangos are a somewhat hard to work with, working around the core is troublesome for me.
I did use extra lime juice, maybe a 1 tbsp.
Thank you, Ali! 5 *s for you!
Great to hear, Glenn! Thanks for writing. I love extra lime here, too 🙂