Vegetable Peels

VfM4meplse

If they are clean, I think you can bake them crisp in the oven with a little oil and seasoning. Haven't tried it myself though.

Pop_Up_Pirate

No waste at all if you don't peel them.

Never peel them here.

jackyann

Agree with many of the above. Peel as little as possible, scrub instead (use a very hard brush)
Only some peels are any good for stock - potato peels are starchy and spoil the texture. I personally find parsnips (which I love as a veg) add an odd taste to stock. And green veg only seem to add bitterness to a stock.

I agree that a veg stock only is not very nice - and honestly, you get very little. However, adding any onion /leek and carrot peels to a meat, fish or poultry stock strengthens it and adds a lovely flavour (ditto, tough outer celery stalks)

I only peel potatoes for mash or for old-fashioned roasties.
But I have to say that the post reminds me of the old WW1 squaddie joke (which my great-uncle claimed happened to him) of being instructed to peel a mound of potatoes - the staff sargeant then looked at the bucket of peelings and said 'now peel those peelings'.

thriftwizard

I do peel, and save up veg peel, seeds etc. in a "Peely" bin for a couple of days until I have enough to make "chicken breakfast" - a casserole dish full of assorted peel that I'll add water to, boil up for 10 minutes, then pop into my Wonderbag overnight. Mash it up in the morning, add some oats to soak up the juice, then serve to a bunch of very excited birds...

It's not just the chickens; a small murder of crows & the local jackdaws who live on (and sometimes in) the chimney pots around us usually turn up for breakfast too. (Obviously they're fed separately just now; the chickens are currently living in small polytunnels inside their runs thanks to the avian flu scare) Anything left over will be gobbled up by the blackbirds, the robins, the wrens, the flock of sparrows and other visitors like the goldcrest that was sitting outside our bedroom window the other morning. There's not usually much left to tidy away onto the compost heap at the end of the day. So - we don't eat the peel ourselves, but we do eat the eggs that we get from those who do.

karcher

I never peel veg..just give a good wash and scrub under running water.

Peeling, for eg. potatoes or carrots, seems such a waste of veg that is perfectly good to eat.

Aren't a lot of the nutrients in veg, in or just under the skin?

GreyQueen

karcher wrote: »

I never peel veg..just give a good wash and scrub under running water.

Peeling, for eg. potatoes or carrots, seems such a waste of veg that is perfectly good to eat.

Aren't a lot of the nutrients in veg, in or just under the skin?

This is my understanding of root veg and tubers.

I'm all for an easy life, and for saving my energy for the fun stuff, so peeling things which don't need peeling isn't going to float my boat.

The outer stalks of celery can sometimes be a bit coarse and stringy. They're perfectly fine as a cooked veg, sliced and steamed. Go nicely with carrots. I always add the celery leaves to salad these days, although you can also put them into soups etc.

thriftwizard, in my grandmother's day, the potato peelings were cooked up and added to something called 'Layers Mash' to be fed to the chickens in winter. They loved it, apparently.

SmlSave

Orange skin can be kept and frozen till you have enough to make marmalade

suki1964

Scrub your veg if dirty and if you feel the need to peel, the peelings can be made into that good old standby soup


And for all those that buy ready prepared veg, like Mash direct mash and carrot and parsnip mash and croquettes etc, you are getting the trimmings from hand cut veg suppliers

If it doesn't land on the floor, the trimmings are sold on