Olay may have encouraged you to “love the skin you’re in” but can the same be said for your favourite vegetables?
There are lots of reasons for not peeling your vegetables. The skin often retains the most nutritional benefits, eating it helps minimise food waste and passing the peeler streamlines the cooking process to help you achieve a Simplicious flow. But there are also a few fruits and veggies that taste more appealing with a little, um, peeling.
The fruits and veggies you can (nay should!) eat with the skin on.
1. Kiwifruit.
Stop scooping out the insides of your kiwifruit with a spoon! The best way to eat this low-fructose favourite it to bite right into it like a peach. Not only is kiwifruit skin completely edible but eating it triples your fibre intake compared to sticking to the flesh.
2. Watermelon.
Watermelon can be on the higher end of the sugar spectrum, but eating the rind may help mitigate the natural sugar rush. The rind also offers a higher dose of citruline than the flesh – an amino acid which helps improve blood circulation.
Surprise fact: The white part of the watermelon rind is actually the tastiest bit of the entire fruit (the hard green skin is edible but can be bitter). It has a texture similar to cucumber and is popular pickled or added to Asian stir-fries.
3. Corn.
Corn silk, the fine thread-like hair that protects your cob, is packed with proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and fibre. You can boil it and drink it as a tea or chop it and add it to soups and stews.
4. Citrus fruits.
The peel of certain citrus fruits is usually a more concentrated source of key vitamins. For example, 100g of fresh orange peel provides 136mg of vitamin C while its flesh carries about 71mg per 100g.
Unfortunately, most citrus peel can be bitter. To get the benefits without the nasty aftertaste, stick to a fine zest.
Alternately, one of Sarah’s tricks is to oven-dry organic thin-skinned tangerine or satsuma peels, then use them to season stews or sauces.
The skins you need to bin.
1. Onions.
Onion skin is hard to chew and difficult to digest but the brown outer layers are rich in fibre and flavonoids. To reap the benefits add them to your stock and simply remove before serving.
2. Avocado.
From avo’ toast to chocolate mousse we can’t get enough of this wonder berry. We’d eat the whole thing if we could… But unfortunately the tough skin is not made for it. Instead, dry, grind and mix it with a little coconut oil to make a natural scrub.
3. Banana.
Banana skin is technically edible, but being thick, fibrous and bitter, not particularly appealing. Which isn’t to say you should toss it in the trash.
Taking their cues from Sarah’s waste-avoiding ways, some readers have used banana peels to make “banana water“. Just simmer them in a pot of water, then freeze the water into ice cubes to use in smoothies.
4. The spikey ones.
We haven’t found a way to make the prickly skin of pineapple, lychee and dragon fruit edible, but we’re always open to suggestions. So if you’ve worked it out let us know…
Do you peel your vegetables or tuck into them with the skin on?
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