11 Creative Ways To Use Your Vegetable Peeler

If you're a keen home cook, chances are your vegetable peeler is your trusty sidekick and gets used more often than many other tools in your kitchen. However, this diminutive appliance may still be getting underused, as it has so much more potential than simply removing potato skin. With a little creative thinking, your veggie peeler can take on several other tasks in the kitchen, from decorating a fancy dessert to creating low-carb noodles. It may even save you money on single-use tools.

So stop risking your fingers with a mandoline or wrestling with solid butter straight from the fridge and try these hacks to help you improve your overall food presentation and impress your dining companions on a regular basis. Grab your peeler from the kitchen drawer and let's look at 11 creative ways to use it to its full potential.

If you've made a fancy dessert and you want a finishing touche to give it that professional feel, reach for your vegetable peeler. You may have seen baked goods with beautiful chocolate curls on top in the bakery and assumed you would need a fancy gadget to create them, but you can easily make your own using your trusty peeler.

Use whatever chocolate you have to hand — baking chocolate is great if you've got some, but a normal dark, milk, or white chocolate bar will work, too. Make sure the chocolate is at the right temperature first — refrigerated chocolate will be difficult to get a good curl from, but if it is too hot the chocolate may start to melt. Room temperature will be ideal and allow you to get nice nice-sized curls.

If your bar is textured on one side, turn it onto the flat edge, and run your peeler carefully along the length of it. If you can do the full length without it breaking you will have a lovely big curl to sit atop your dessert. If you prefer lots of smaller curls or flat shavings, start in the middle of the bar and work your way to the outside. Be careful when lifting them as they are very delicate and a few seconds in your hand could be enough to melt them. Add them to your superstar dessert to add texture, flavor, and of course the flair of a professional pastry chef.

In the battle between cold butter and soft bread, we all know who is going to come out on top. How many times have you looked forward to a comforting slice of buttered toast, only to be faced with a mashed-up mess filled with holes a few minutes later? Fear not, your toast nightmares will soon be over, thanks to your vegetable peeler.

Using your peeler to shave off exquisitely thin slices of butter is the kitchen hack you didn't know you needed. The slices are so thin that they will start melting as soon as they hit your freshly toasted bread. You can then use your knife to guide the butter to each corner of the toast, without worrying that you are going to hack it to pieces.

Shavings of butter can be used in plenty of other ways in the kitchen too. Try buttering a cracker (that won't snap in half!) or adding it to scrambled eggs as they cook. In fact, any delicate butter situation is going to benefit from this technique. Of course, you could avoid needing this hack entirely by storing your butter in the cupboard instead of the fridge, but that would then open up the 'butter is too soft' can of worms, so the best option is to rely on your veggie peeler to keep your butter exploits in order.

Eating healthily is something that most of us aspire to do, and salads make up a big part of that effort, allowing you to consume multiple portions of veggies on one plate. Salads can get a bad rap, however, for being boring and drab, both in terms of flavor and presentation. As a capable home cook, you can take care of the flavor side of things, but jazzing up the look of a salad can be trickier.

In professional restaurants, vegetables are often shaped into ribbons before being added to salads, and this is a trick you can use too as long as you have a veggie peeler at hand. You can use this trick on cucumber, carrots, asparagus, or even beets — though that would get a little messy. Simply hold the raw vegetable firmly in one hand and run the peeler down the length of the veggie, creating a strip that will only be a few millimeters thick. 

By using a few different vegetables, you will create a variety of textures for your salad too, and you can arrange them beautifully on the plate to give your salad more of a wow factor. It's also a handy trick if you have fussy children — or adults — in the house who may be overwhelmed by a huge chunk of veggies. The thin ribbons will be more appealing and may just solve the veggie-eating crisis if you're lucky.

If you're the type of person who waits eagerly in an Italian restaurant for the waiter to come over and offer you fresh Parmesan, then you need this next hack in your life. Every lover of Italian foods should have a wedge of Parmesan cheese in their fridge at all times, and being able to present it beautifully on your food is a game changer.

Fresh Parmesan is in another league compared to the dried stuff that you keep in the pantry and sprinkle on your pasta. Shaving the cheese instead will allow it to last longer atop your pasta, meaning you can enjoy the enticing umami flavor more fully. To create Parmesan shavings, simply drag your vegetable peeler along the wedge of cheese to create paper-thin slices. 

Once you have Parmesan shavings in your life, you will want them on everything — charcuterie platters, salads, and even sandwiches, because why not? These thin shavings allow you to enjoy this majestic cheese at its very best, as well as look fabulous on the plate.

In preparation for your next cocktail party, learn how to spruce up the presentation of your drinks by adding a citrus twist to the edge of the glass. Not only do they add an elegant touch to your drink, but fruit garnishes can contribute to its flavor, making them a welcome addition if you want to make the best cocktails possible. Many bartenders use vegetable peelers to peel the citrus fruit.

One crucial thing to understand before attempting this hack is that the white pith below the skin of a lemon, lime, or orange can be quite bitter. (It also contains as much vitamin C as the flesh of the fruit, so when you're making a smoothie, leave it in.) For cocktails, you want to avoid adding the pith into your drink, meaning a steady hand is needed with the peeler.

Don't dig the peeler too far into the fruit to start off the curl; you want as thin a shaving as you can get. To avoid accidents, keep the peeler still and turn the fruit slowly in your hand as the zest comes off in a long strip. Once it is off, twist the peel around the handle of a spoon to create the classic shape, then set it aside until it is needed for your drinks. If your next party isn't for a while, you can always add your practice versions to a cup of hot tea for a fancy upgrade.

If you're into savory snacks rather than sweet, chances are you love a bag of potato chips. But store-bought chips are loaded with salt and can be full of additives and colorings that are concerning for your health. If you've considered making your own chips, but thought it would be too much effort without the help of a mandoline, your vegetable peeler can come to the rescue instead.

The beauty of homemade chips is that you can choose which potatoes or vegetables to make them from. White potatoes, sweet potatoes, or parsnips are all delicious options, and you can mix up a few different root veggies for a bit of variety. After cutting the end off each vegetable, use the peeler to slice circles approximately 1.5 millimeters each.

For the real McCoy, deep fry the chips in hot oil for a few minutes — you should be able to tell they are ready from the color. While they are still hot, season them with sea salt and black pepper, or some dried herbs, if you wish. For a healthier preparation, you can toss the raw veggies in a little oil, then air fry or oven-bake them for 20 minutes or so.

Pickled ginger is an important part of the sushi experience. Providing a spicy, tangy flavor to lift the rice and fish, its paper-thin texture is crucial to the overall dish and one that can be difficult to create at home. A mandoline can create the slices, but if you don't own one, or don't fancy losing the tip of your finger making dinner, you can still make great sushi ginger without it.

Begin by peeling the ginger carefully — if the ginger is quite fresh, you can actually remove the thin peel with a spoon to avoid wasting too much flesh. Then use the vegetable peeler to produce slices of ginger, which can be pickled using salt, sugar, vinegar, and water.

What's more, ways to use this zesty condiment don't need to stop at sushi. You can add pickled ginger to tuna sandwiches or stir-fries to give a welcome hit of flavor. Whether you're looking to venture into the homemade sushi world, or just want to try a new accompaniment to other dishes, using your vegetable peeler to slice ginger is a shortcut that will open up so many new ideas in your kitchen.

When preparing fresh, ripe strawberries for yourself or your family, you may grab a sharp knife, cut the tops off of each berry, and then serve them in a bowl, free of their green hull. However, in preparing strawberries this way — as most of us do — you are discarding perfectly good flesh of this delicious fruit, and with the strawberry season being so short, why would you want to waste a drop?

Fortunately, with the part that is designed to remove eyes from potatoes, you can hull strawberries easier than ever with your trusty vegetable peeler. If you have a long, straight peeler, use the top of the blade, whereas on a y-shaped peeler, you may have to use the section on either side of the blade. 

Pierce the strawberry around the green hull, then scoop it out, along with a little piece of flesh underneath. This will leave your beautiful berry hull-free without losing the entire top section of the fruit. Whether you are preparing a fruit salad, strawberry dessert, or simply a quick snack, this handy tip makes quick work of hulling strawberries while reducing waste.

If you're a fan of cooking shows, you will be very familiar with the term "julienne," which is a culinary technique of cutting matchstick-sized vegetables. These are used to create professional-looking garnishes or to allow the veggies to cook evenly in sauces and soups. While you may have assumed that you would need either Michelin-level knife skills or a super-fancy gadget to achieve julienne perfection, you can easily create these beautiful strips with the help of your vegetable peeler.

Start by peeling thin strips from your vegetables of choice with your veggie peeler, then stack them up neatly in a pile. Hold the pile tightly, and with a sharp knife, cut through them at intervals of a few millimeters to create matchsticks. If you want to be exact, the Michelin Guide states that julienne veggies should be 3 millimeters thick. 

In addition to creating colorful salads, this technique can be used to create shoestring fries quickly as well. Simply use the same technique on a potato or sweet potato before dropping it into hot oil. Armed with this simple hack, you can level up your vegetable presentation and seriously impress your guests at your next dinner party.

In case you missed the spiralizing craze of the mid-2010s, you don't have to give up noodles if you are trying to follow a low-carb diet. Vegetable-based noodles began trending around a decade ago, and are still a popular option for those trying to avoid wheat. Though a spiralizer can make perfect zoodles (zucchini noodles, obviously) in seconds, the best ones take up quite a lot of space on the worktop, so if you are only dabbling every so often, it may not be worth the investment. Enter, your handy vegetable peeler, which can help you create healthy veggie noodles without the need for any dedicated equipment.

To create your noodles, start by choosing an appropriate vegetable. Zucchini is the usual choice, but carrots, squash, and sweet potato will all work too. After removing the skin, use your vegetable peeler to slice long, wide ribbons until you have a beautiful pile of wafer-thin veggies. You can then stack the slices, and cut them into strips — thin if you are replacing spaghetti or thicker ribbons for tagliatelle. You can then toss them with your favorite sauce and enjoy a stodge-free pasta dish that packs in a few of your five servings of fruits and vegetables per day.

If you're a coleslaw fan, you have probably considered making your own at home. While we know that virtually everything homemade is better than store-bought, the thought of painstakingly finely shredding all that cabbage can be a bit off-putting, and buying some from the local store means the creamy goodness will reach your fork much more quickly.

However, with the help of a simple vegetable peeler, you can shred cabbage in seconds, meaning a tasty slaw is just a few minutes away. Start by slicing off the end of the cabbage, to reveal the inner layers. Slide the peeler down the side of the cabbage, and watch as the strands fall onto the board below, ready to be mixed up into a delightfully velvety side dish. Both red and white cabbage work well in coleslaw, and using a mixture of the two will give you a nice color contrast.

You can use the same technique for round lettuces such as iceberg, allowing you to have garnish for your sandwich or salad using just this one kitchen tool. Next time you are having a picnic, use your trusty peeler to create homemade slaws without any fuss.