25 alternative uses for fruit and vegetable peels

Fruit and vegetable peels are normally considered as the less noble parts of these precious foods and they are therefore first destined to be transformed into scraps and then immediately into waste. In the municipalities where there is a good waste recycling, fortunately they are transformed into compost, but this is just one of the many uses to which to allocate them.

Especially in the case that you orientate your purchases towards organic products or you can have chemically untreated fruit and vegetables directly from your vegetable garden, allocating their skins to the garbage would be a real shame, especially now that you will have the opportunity to enrich your knowledge about their many alternative uses in the kitchen, in household chores, for beauty care and more.

Ecological cleaning

1. Do not throw away he lemon peels after squeezing them. They will prove very useful, thanks to the juice still retained by the remaining pulp, to polish cookers, cutlery and crockery.

2. The peels left over from the preparation of a fresh lemonade will help you polish your copper objects, which will return as if they were new. This is a truly amazing grandmother's remedy.

3. If you want to refurbish the bottom of your coffee maker, pour in some water, some coarse salt and chopped lemon peels. Leave to stand for a few hours and then rinse.

4. If you have limestone on the bottom of your electric kettle, bring to the boil some water in which you have dipped some chopped lemon peel; then add half a glass of vinegar and leave for at least an hour. The limestone will dissolve as if by magic.

5. To clean the sinks and bathtubs plugs, proceed by soaking them in water previously boiled with a handful of orange or lemon peel cut into small pieces. Let them rest for half an hour and you will see that the successive phases of their cleaning will be easier because the limestone residues will have almost vanished.

6. To polish shoes, use banana peels. How? Just read here. Guaranteed result.

In the kitchen

1. Before proceeding with your citrus juice, grate the skins and, if you do not need it at the moment, freeze them. You can use them in the future when in the recipe you want to make there are peel of oranges, mandarin oranges or lemons among the ingredients.

2. Use the chopped lemon peel or cut them into strips for the preparation of limoncello. Immerse the peel of 5 lemons in 500 ml of alcohol and leave to rest in a tightly sealed glass jar for a week. Filter everything and add to a syrup prepared by heating over a low heat and mixing with a wooden spoon 500 ml of water and 300 gr of sugar. Transfer the limoncello in glass bottles and preserve them in the cellar or in the refrigerator.

3. Preparing an aromatic citrus oil is just as simple. You will need it to season your summer salads giving them an extra touch of flavor. Leave a well-closed glass jar in the dark for fifteen days, containing 500 ml of extra-virgin olive oil and four tablespoons of chopped orange or lemon peel. Remember to shake the jar once a day. After the set time has elapsed, you will only have to filter your oil with the help of a colander and pour it into dark glass bottles.

4. The citrus peels can be preserved after having been left to dry and reduced to powder with the help of a food processor. You will have obtained your lemon or orange powder, which you can use as a condiment in various dishes or as an extra touch for sweets and fruit salads. Keep it in tightly closed glass jars.

5. Finely chop the lemon peels after letting them dry in the air or in the oven, at a low temperature and mix with coarse salt. Transfer everything into glass jars that you leave to rest for a few days so that the lemon aroma spreads. In this way you will have obtained an excellent aromatic lemon flavored salt.

6. You can also get lemon flavored pepper by adding some lemon powder to your jar of black pepper, ground or grains.

7. If you bought organic potatoes, do not throw away the peels but cut them into strips and cook them in the oven or fry them as if they were fries.

8. The peels of carrots, onions and potatoes can be finely chopped and added to other vegetables in the preparation of the broth or homemade vegetable nut.

9. Adding chopped lemon peel to the bottom of the brown sugar jar to help ensure that it retains the right moisture and prevents clumping.

The apple peels can be left to dry and then used for the preparation of an excellent infusion; so just immerse them in boiling water, let them stand for five minutes and filter. Dried lemon or orange peels can be used to enrich your favorite infusions.
Do-it-yourself

1. Pomegranate peels can be used to obtain a natural dye for fabrics with shades of yellow or light orange. Immerse the peels of several pomegranates in a stainless steel pot containing boiling water. Let it rest for one night, bring to a boil again and remove the peels. It's time to immerse the fabric you want to dye and leave it to rest at least for a whole day until you get the shade you prefer.

2. The dried and chopped citrus peels can be used as ingredients for the preparation of fragrant potpourri together with flower petals and spices such as cinnamon or cloves.

3. The orange peels can be the starting point for the creation of fantastic earrings, of which a user has offered us a marvelous example.

4. Another creative reader suggest us a beautiful idea to use the peels of citrus for the creation of wedding favors of sure effect, as well as economic. You can admire them here.

Beauty

1. The potato peels applied around the eye area will help you reduce any swelling caused by tiredness or stress and the unsightly "bags".

2. Banana peels will help you perform an exfoliating massage on the skin of the body. Just pour a little sugar on their inside and rub them gently on the areas to be polished.

3. After preparing your guacamole sauce, do not throw away the avocado peel, but rub some pieces on the face for an immediate refreshing effect. Did you know that if you have a sunny balcony, you could try growing your own avocado?

4. For a gentle scrub on the face, gently rub the skin with the pieces of orange or pomegranate peel.

5. Do you want to give golden reflections to your hair? So prepare an infusion of onion skins to be used for the last rinse and let your hair dry preferably in the sun.

6. The potato peels, thanks to the starch contained in them, are finally the quickest remedy to apply on the skin to relieve the pain and redness caused by a burn.