How do I peel ginger and other awkward things?
Ginger with a spoon, squash without a fight, and the general rule that makes every awkward ingredient easier.
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Time
- 10 min
- Read
- 2 min
- Safety
- caution
Short answer
Use a teaspoon for ginger — it scrapes the thin skin off and follows the knobbles a peeler cannot. For anything round or hard, cut a flat face first so it sits still. Almost every awkward peeling job is really a stability problem.
Some ingredients defeat a peeler entirely, and the usual response is to force it. In nearly every case there is a different tool or a preparation step that makes the job trivial.
Safety
Step by step
- Scrape ginger with a teaspoon.Hold the ginger in one hand and drag the edge of a teaspoon along it. The skin comes away in strips and the spoon follows the knobbly shape, wasting almost none. A peeler removes the flesh with the skin.
- Cut a flat face on anything round.Squash, celeriac, swede, large beetroot. Slice a piece off one side so it sits flat on the board, then work down the sides with a knife. Peeling a wobbling sphere is the actual hazard.
- Peel butternut squash after softening it.Two or three minutes in the microwave makes the skin far easier to take off. Or cut it in half, roast it and scoop the flesh out, which skips peeling altogether.
- Use boiling water for tomatoes and peaches.Score a small cross in the base, thirty seconds in boiling water, then straight into cold. The skin slips off from the cross. Trying to peel a raw tomato with a knife wastes half of it.
- Loosen garlic and shallots the same way.Press a garlic clove under the flat of a knife and the skin splits. For shallots and small onions, a minute in hot water makes the papery layer release.
- Top and tail before peeling, not after.Removing both ends gives a flat base and a clear starting edge for the peeler. It is a one-second step that removes most of the fiddling.
- Peel towards a board, not towards yourself.Rest the item on the board and work downwards away from your hand. Holding it in the air and pulling the peeler towards your thumb is how peelers cause cuts.
- Consider whether it needs peeling at all.Carrots, new potatoes, courgettes, young ginger and most squash going into a blended soup are all fine unpeeled once scrubbed. A great deal of peeling is habit.
Tips
- Freeze ginger whole. It grates straight from frozen, skin and all, and does not need peeling at that point.
- A serrated peeler handles soft skins — tomatoes, peaches, kiwi — that a straight blade slides off.
- Keep the trimmings from carrots, onions and celery in a freezer bag for stock rather than binning them.
Questions people ask
What is the easiest way to peel ginger?
Scrape it with the edge of a teaspoon. The thin skin comes away in strips and the spoon follows the knobbly shape, wasting far less flesh than a peeler or a knife.
How do I peel a butternut squash?
Cut a flat face so it sits steady, then work down the sides with a knife. A couple of minutes in the microwave first softens the skin considerably, or roast it in halves and scoop the flesh out instead.