At Le Parfait we are known for two things:
- Manufacturing sustainable and timeless glass jars that are perfect to contain and preserve delicious food. (Yep, that’s right)
- Scheming our way to spend as little time as possible in the kitchen while maintaining a maximum taste and pleasure ratio. (No we’re not lazy; we’re just way more into the eating part than the cooking part of food.)
Which brings us to today’s topic: Peels…and why, most of the time, you don’t need that extra, time-consuming step of peeling (most of) your vegetables and fruit.
First - and shout this from the rooftops – peels are packed with good stuffs like fibbers, vitamins and nutrients, and they can often bring more taste and contrast to your meal.
Second: Waste.is.bad. Sure, we’re all for that compost life and everything, but those mentioned above vitamins and health benefactors will feel as good in your stomach as in the ones of worms.
Third: if your vegetables and fruit are organic, seasonal and well sourced, there is basically no reason to peel them. Sure, they might be a bit dirty, but they’re pesticide-free so a good old scrub will do the trick just fine!
Which brings us to the fun part, cooking and preserving peels:
The first thing to know is which one you should or should not peel, and is quite easy to sort out: is your veggy‘s skin as thick as Daenerys Targaryen’s dragons? (Yes GoT is coming back in one month so we’re getting a bit obsessed) then peel (it goes for squash, celery roots etc.). Is it still really dirty after a scrub (think Winterfell post- storm)? Then peel. (It can happen with beetroots for example) For the others, you’re good to go and those preserve recipes are here to prove it:
But, if you’re really into peeling your veggies (you know, if you like spending time cooking, find it’s similar to a meditative state, or simply want a more creamy mashed potatoes) here’s a smart way to repurpose the peels: a concentrated vegetables stock paste made from peels from our friends at Dot-to-Dot.
Voilà, you’re left with only good peelings