New & NowKitchen Hacks
Why I May Never Peel a Kiwi Again: A Controversial Stance
by Sarah Jampel
• July 26, 2018
• 39 Comments
A few years back, I asked one of my best friends to bring a fruit salad to a potluck. She did not skimp. Not a 100% cantaloupe sort of situation (we all know that fruit salad), this mélange was Platinum Level: There were berries (!), grapes (!), and pineapple, too. May there have been cherries? I imagine so!
But the kiwi chunks gave the whole party pause—because the brown skin, with its stubbly fuzz, remained on each and every piece. Having been conditioned to accept only completely bald kiwi pieces, the majority of us laughed at this friend, who didn't even know to peel the kiwi. Had she ever eaten a kiwi? What nonsense! What naiveté! Ha! Ha! Ha!
Turns out we mockers were the ones who deserved to be laughed out of the room. Because kiwi skins are perfectly edible. You can bite right into a kiwi like it's an apple or a peach or, if you're this kind of person, a tomato! (My brother has even been known to do this with a red bell pepper.)
When I informally polled the Food52 team to see which of us peel our kiwis, I received a mix of responses: Emily has gone her entire life without ingesting the fuzz, while Grace" literally never knew kiwis were supposed to be peeled." ("You think you understand the world and then your life is flipped-turned-upside-down by a kiwi," expressed a Food52er who shall remain anonymous.)
But yes, you can eat a kiwi "out of hand" (an expression we like to reserve for stone fruit season) and let the green juices drip down your chin. (Green juice is so in right now, is it not?) Kiwis, when you don't peel them, will give bananas a run for their money: Stick a kiwi in your bag, then chomp into it before you hit the gym or during your commute home.
No utensils necessary. No need to "sloop" while you drive. Will you ever take a paring knife or a vegetable peeler to a kiwi again? (The exception: elaborate fruit tarts.)
I know kiwi skin is edible because I've consumed several whole kiwis at this point, but also because I believe Dan Nosowitz, who professed his love for consuming kiwi skin (and the peels of other fruits and vegetables often falsely deemed "inedible") for The Awl back in 2014.
Dan recommends removing a bit of the fuzz before biting in: Simply run the kiwi under water, then use a paper towel, dish towel, or your fingernails (particularly satisfying) to scrub off some of the prickle.
Sure, a bit of bristle may remain but, as Dan reasons, "how many people reading this post have a beard or enjoy kissing people with beards or both?"
And he says that unless the peel of a fruit is classified as inedible—we're talking mango, passionfruit, pineapple, lychee, avocado, or dragonfruit, according to Dan—well, then, "you should eat it." Leave your eggplants, your potatoes, your carrots, and your apples be!
And that watermelon rind? Turn it into jam.
Something else a little fruity
Do you peel kiwis? What about potatoes, eggplant, zucchini, and carrots? Tell us in the comments below!
This article was originally published in June 2017, but we're sharing it again because we can't get enough kiwi!
Comments (39)
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Shudder, I'm allergic to kiwi, (it has to do with my latex allergy) even more so to the skin. If it's peeled I can pick it out of fruit salad and eat the rest but the skin infects the entire dish.
New Zealand exports a lot of Kiwi Fruit. They are named after the much loved, flightless, endangered New Zealand bird, the Kiwi. (Kiwi fruit looks just like the bird)
As a New Zealand kid I always ate the skin, these days I just cut them in half and scoff the insides. New Zealanders also refer to themselves as 'Kiwis', after the bird, NOT the fruit.
BerryBaby is trusted source on General Cooking
There is a kiwi producer that sells 6 kiwi to a container and they include a kiwi spoon. It is a terrific utensil and no mess eating the juicy kiwi. Did you know kiwis come in two colors? Green,of course, and yellow flesh. I found the yellow to be sweeter with less tang.
I haven’t peeled a kiwi ever since my teens, and that was a long time ago! Lol My favourite way to eat that delicious fruit is washed and sliced and eaten with a dessert fork.😉
Nope, not since realising that the skins were edible a few years back. So much easier to prepare. Less mess !
I’m a kiwi, never peel kiwi fruit. The good stuff is in the skin.
My hubby bites into kiwis too. I’ve always been the cut & scoop-type. Didn’t know you could peel zucchinis! And I don’t peel potatoes and carrots most of the time, because most of the vitamins are in or just below the skin. But I ALWAYS eat choose organic. The thought of eating fruit and vegetables full of pesticides.. ugh! I mean, that kinda counterbalances the whole idea of it being healthy...
How, oh how could a singular article about the edibility of a kiwi skin neglect the hugely important nutritional fact that the skin provides even more fiber than the rest of the fruit?
Do other readers have access to organic kiwis? I don't recall seeing them. Like lemons, I think I'd only eat skin/rind of organic specimens.
Why do the labels kiwis come with always warn to wash VERY well? This always makes me paranoid about the skins.
I wonder how pesticides, etc. clean off the fuzz...
According to EWG, Kiwi is one of the 15 clean.
Right, but presumably that is because most people cut away the skin, no?
I can't even bite into a whole peach because of the fuzz, I'll keep scooping my kiwis too, thanks so much.
We do the cut and scoop. Super easy and less mess!
I love eggplant but I peel it.I think the skin makes it bitter.The seeds do too.
I am a New Zealander and, apart from my mother who used a teaspoon to scoop out the flesh, we have always eaten the peels. And they used to be much hairier than they are today. Full of nutritional goodness.
The mango skin is inedible! It's new news for me. If you can get mangoes totally ripe, that is totally yellow or yellow-red and not green. Get them without insect bites black spots.
Give it a try. I've done this since kindergarten.
Rewrite your list of inedible fruit skins.
Indeed! And I can say that the combo of flesh and skin tastes lot better!
Cut and scoop is the only way, done it all my life. Mind you, the peels these days are a great deal less hairy than they used to be fifty years ago.
I can't even wrap my head around putting that texture in my mouth. I think I'm gonna stick to peeling my kiwi.
Great to know this though I believe my husband eats them this way after cleaning off a bit of the fuzz. I never peel potatoes, apples, tomatoes, peppers, etc except the few you listed above such as pineapple and mango. I want ALL the most nutritious parts of my fruits and veggies inside me and not in the trash or compost.
Wait, what? Kiwi peel is edible? I had no idea.
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