Still consider vegetable and fruit peels as waste? Actually, if they come from organic products, you can clean them, cut them up and reuse them in many recipes, making tasty appetizers or even a herbal tea. Here’s how.
Recycling potato peels
Don’t throw away those potato peels! Wash off any residual dirt, let them dry and you can turn them into tasty chips. Just brown them in oil, add a little salt and bake them in the oven for 20 minutes. Or how about pancakes? Julienne the peels and brown them in a pan where you’ve already browned some chopped onion. Add salt and pepper and fry for 5 minutes, then add them to a mixture of eggs, flour, salt and pepper. Drop a tablespoon of the mixture in a pan heated with a drizzle of oil and cook the first pancake, then repeat until the mixture runs out. Have you ever tried potato peel herbal tea? It helps prevent water retention and expels toxins. To prepare it, boil the potato peels in 1 cup of water for 5 minutes, then filter and drink.
Recycle onion skins
If combined with other vegetables, onion skins are also good for preparing vegetable broth because they retain the flavor of the bulb. In the same way you can use potato and carrot peels. You can also prepare an herbal tea with onion skins. If the taste is a bit iffy, bear in mind that such an infusion has decongestant properties to help soothe the respiratory tract. Boil some water, then turn the heat off and leave the skins to infuse for 10 minutes.
Recycling citrus peels
Orange and lemon peels can be used to do a lot of things in the kitchen. For example, you can make a good homemade limoncello or candied orange peels to be covered with chocolate or used to garnish cakes and sweets. Ah, and putting pieces of lemon peel in the sugar container helps reduce the moisture and keep it from clumping.
Recycling apple peels
With apple peels you can prepare an herbal tea. Boil cinnamon and cloves together with the peels. After 5 minutes, turn off the heat and leave to infuse for another 5 minutes. Before drinking it, you can sweeten the herbal tea with sugar or honey.
With the apple peels you can also make a sauce to accompany grilled meats or vegetables. Bring some vegetable broth to a boil with apple peels, lemon rind, cinnamon and cloves, then let it simmer over low heat. When the mixture is cooked, add it to a sautéed shallot and pass everything with an immersion blender. Finally, add lemon juice and salt. How about making soft biscuits with apple peels? Caramelize the skins in a saucepan with sugar, then add them to a mixture prepared with 5 oz of yogurt, 1 egg, 9 oz of flour, 4 oz of brown sugar, 2 oz of butter, the rind of half a lemon, ½ sachet of baking powder, a pinch of cinnamon. Place spoonfuls of the mixture on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for 15 minutes at 350°F degrees.
