10 nifty new uses for your vegetable peeler
<p>The humble veggie peeler has a place in most homes. Its life is mostly spent peeling potatoes or carrots, perhaps the occasional pumpkin or zucchini before being popped in the dishwasher for the next skimming session. As it happens, your veggie peeler actually has a range of different uses far and beyond merely peeling. Here are 10 of our favourites.</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>Hull strawberry stems</strong> – In nifty news, the pointy end of your peeler is actually designed to remove potato eyes. Make use of that newly discovered function by using it to hull the stems on strawberries.</li>
<li><strong>Peel an onion</strong> – Bye bye onion tears! A veggie peeler can be used to shave thin slices of onion so that you can speed through the process before the tears start to well up.</li>
<li><strong>Seed a chilli</strong> – Remove the spicy seeds in a hot chilli by slicing off the top then working a peeler around the middle to cleanly remove the seeds.</li>
<li><strong>Create soap shavings</strong> – If you’re sick of slippery bars of soap that stick to the bath or shower, try creating ‘soap shavings’ that can be used a handful at a time. Less wastage as well!</li>
<li><strong>Create a decorative lemon</strong> – If you’ve got a dinner party coming up, a pretty floral lemon is an easy way to impress guests. Simply use your peeler to make ridges down the sides of the lemon then slice with a knife as usual.</li>
<li><strong>De-string celery</strong> – If the strings on celery end up in your teeth remove them altogether with your peeler. All you need to do is shave the curved side of the celery to remove fibres with ease.</li>
<li><strong>Make chocolate shavings</strong> – Decorate a cake or bowl of ice cream with super easy chocolate shavings. Use a peeler to shave off three to five-cm pieces that can then be used to sprinkle on top of your favourite dessert.</li>
<li><strong>Zest citrus</strong> – Need the zest of a lemon for a recipe but don’t have a zester? No problem! Use a veggie peeler to slice strips of your citrus fruit then process or crush the pieces for your recipe.</li>
<li><strong>Sharpen your chalk</strong> – If you run your house off a chalkboard or have a chalkboard calendar you’ll know that blunt chalk is a nightmare. Use a peeler to remove blunt ends and bring chalk back to life.</li>
<li><strong>Peel a mango</strong> – It may not be summer but come the warmer months be prepared by using a peeler to peel a delicious mango. The tough skin can be tricky to slice effectively where as a peeler does a neat and tidy job in a fraction of the time.</li>
</ol>
<p>Have you ever used a peeler for an unusual purpose? Tell us about it in the comments below.</p>
<p><em>Image: Getty</em></p>
