I love fresh, homemade salsas. We rarely, if ever, buy jarred salsa. Not that there is anything wrong with them but I never eat the whole jar and I feel wasteful. Instead, we tend to make a quick small batch of homemade salsa and then devour it with a bag of tortilla chips. Or in this case, homemade cheese quesadillas with fresh mango and avocado salsa!
One of the first things I will tell you if you’re making a chopped salsa like this one, is that you need a sharp knife. Do not be afraid of sharp knives because you are way more likely to cut yourself with a dull knife rather than a sharp one. We use mostly Shun knives that you can get at Williams & Sonoma, Sur La Table, and I think even Bed, Bath & Beyond. We also use a few custom made knives from Weige Knives down in Texas. These can all set you back a little bit of money but trust me, it’s totally worth it to have a solid, well built, trusted knife in your kitchen then 20 crappy ones.
I didn’t realize this post would be so technical but here we go with another good tip! When I worked for Whole Foods Market, I once had to cut dozens and dozens of mangos to celebrate our $1 mango sale. My friend and co-worker taught me this tip and it’s worked for me every single time I need to cut a fresh mango. Start by feeling the tops and sides of the mango to feel where the seed is located. Then, use a sharp knife and gently cut from top to bottom on one side of the seed. If you are too close to it, it won’t let you slice through. Then, do the same on the other side.
Once you have your two pieces of sliced mango, grab a pint glass. Trust me, this works. Position the pint glass at the edge of the mango and push down to the rind and slide to the other side of the mango. Then, repeat with the other side of the mango.
Voila! You’ve got two big hunks of mango and a possibly sticky hand. This is hands down, the easiest way to prepare a mango. I mean I’ve never tried anything else but this works, so why would I try anything else? Then, you just grab your knife and chop up your mango into the desired size for your salsa.
I cut this into probably 1-inch pieces but honestly, it doesn’t matter because it’s all delicious and just be happy if you don’t eat all the bite-size pieces before they make it into your salsa. Fresh mango is literally one of my favorite things ever. If you aren’t like me and haven’t eaten half of them, you can go ahead and toss them into a bowl with your other veggies and a little bit of salt.
Next, you’re going to add some fresh lime juice to really bring it all together and brighten up the flavors. You could also add cilantro but I didn’t buy any and I didn’t feel like it was totally necessary. I mean, I’m not Chipotle. Oooh, burn. Also, PSA – you can ask for plain rice at Chipotle that doesn’t have cilantro in it! Fun fact for those who think it tastes like soap.
Once you’ve added all your ingredients, you can enlist a little munchkin to help you mix it all together. I will say that having her help wasn’t my intention but we’ve created a little cooking monster. She now thinks that anytime we are putting something in a bowl, she should be the one to mix it up. This better pay off when she’s the first 5-year-old winner of Masterchef Junior. Let it be known that I wouldn’t let her add the avocado because we ain’t making guacamole and she wasn’t about to smoosh my fresh mango salsa.
Once you finish up your salsa, go ahead and toss it in the fridge while you make your quesadillas. It will probably get better because it’s combining all those yummy flavors together sealed with the lime juice. Yum, yum, yum. Grate some cheese into a bowl while your pan is heating up. You can really use whatever kind of cheese you’d like but we go for the classic orange and white monteray jack. 
We are gluttons so we butter the outside of our tortilla when we make quesadillas. You don’t have to but we find that it adds a little more flavor (fat) and crisps in the pan better. I mean it balances out with the fresh mango and avocado, right? When you are adding your cheese, make sure you only add it to one side because we’re going to fold it in half and grill both sides. If you add it to both, then you’ll end up with an exploding quesadilla. 
See, perfectly buttered and filled with cheese. This is such an easy dinner for the whole family! If you wanted to add a little more to it, you could easily grill some chicken or steak and add that to the inside of your quesadillas. If you want to be like Taco Bell, you could even do a little ground beef.
You can cut your quesadilla into bite-size little triangles like this or leave it whole and take bites out of it, just live your life however you want. I like the little triangles because they are the perfect vessel for my fresh mango and avocado salsa and are sturdy enough to hold a giant spoonful. If serving for the above 21 crowd, we suggest making a quick margarita to enjoy and for those not of legal drinking age, enjoy a lemonade sans alcohol. Let us know what you are putting in your quesadillas below in the comments!
- 1 mango
- 1 jalapeno
- 1/2 red onion
- 1 avocado
- 1 Tablespoon fresh lime juice
- 1 teaspoon salt (or more, to taste)
- 2 flour tortillas
- 1 cup shredded cheese
- 1 Tablespoon soft butter
- Chop red onion and jalapeño and add to bowl
- Peel and chop mango and add to onion and jalapeño.
- Add lime juice and salt and stir to combine.
- Peel and chop avocado and gently add to salsa. Carefully stir to combine.
- Store in fridge until ready to eat!
- Bring pan to medium heat.
- Shred cheese and set aside.
- Butter one side of flour tortilla and add to warm pan. Add cheese to one half of the tortilla. Gently fold the other half over the cheese side.
- Grill for 2-3 minutes on each side, until cheese is melted and quesadilla is brown and slightly crispy. Repeat with additional tortillas and cheese.
- Serve with fresh salsa and enjoy!
- You can also grill some chicken or steak to add to your quesadillas.
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