Peel, Repurpose, Repeat: Creative Ways To Use Kitchen Scraps
Image Credit: Think twice before tossing those fruit and vegetable peels!

SPROUTING FROM A SEED, an apple tree religiously produces fruit every year. The apples are collected, sent to sellers, packaged and then offered to consumers. For fear of pesticides or the wax often found on apples, one might peel off the outer skin and enjoy the fruit, keeping doctors at bay. But the story of the fruit’s life doesn’t have to end there. We can continue its story by repurposing the peels, instead of throwing them into the bin. 

DIY (do it yourself) artist Anukriti Sharma, of Lavanya Handmades, who regularly engages in composting, swears by this simple and ingenuous process:

In a large plastic container, put some soil. Collect the peels either each day or every alternate day and drop them into the box. Add half a teaspoon of lemon or curd to speed up the process. Top it off with more soil and dry leaves, cocopeat or any other similar item. Once the container is full, close the lid and set aside the box. Remember to make some holes in the lid so air can flow through. Give it a good shake after five days but keep the lid on. When you open the box after about 20 to 25 days, the peels will have broken down. Some peels might take longer than others, so close the lid if they’re not fully disintegrated. Much like peels, even leftover food can be composted. 

“Everything from the kitchen is compostable,” says Sharma. She acutely recognises the benefits of composting. It adds nutrients to the soil which leads to healthier produce, encourages an ecosystem of tiny organisms that are good for the plants, retains moisture in the soil making it healthier, and of course, reduces waste. Another plus is that once it’s broken down in this way, the compost doesn’t have a foul smell, whereas the peels thrown away in the garbage start to deteriorate and smell terrible. “A lot of people think that what I’m doing is stupid. But it’s all about the choices you make. And it’s very simple to do too,” says Sharma. 

Another innovative idea Sharma came upon is a cleaner with leftover peels. Here is her detailed explanation of it:

Ingredients:

  • Lemon peels or citrus fruit peels
  • Jaggery
  • Water

Follow this ratio — 3:1:10 — Lemon Peels : Jaggery : Water. For instance:

  • 300 g lemon peels
  • 100 g jaggery
  • 1 litre water

Directions:

- Add all the ingredients to a container or bottle and stir until the jaggery dissolves.

- Seal it and let it ferment for three months. During this time, open the lid each day for the first two weeks to release gas. 

- Occasionally shake the mixture, without opening it.

- After the stipulated time period, strain the liquid and store it. 

Here’s how you can use it:

Floor cleaner: 1 part enzyme + 10 parts water

Dishwasher: use as is

Glass/surface cleaner: 1 part enzyme + 5 parts water

Notes:

  • The cleaner isn’t going to be harsh on the skin since it’s completely natural
  • Save a little enzyme from the first batch and add that into the container when making the next batch. The cleaner will be ready in one month then, instead of three.

“It’s a process that requires a lot of patience. But I enjoy it very much,” says Sharma.

While DIYing with peels can be deeply rewarding, what’s even more exciting is finding new ways of actually consuming the peels. “I worked with a nonprofit that deals with food,” says Hyderabad-based business consultant Pooja Surneni. “On one of my visits to the farm, they talked about how people often throw away the most nutritious parts of food, when all you need to do is make small changes and you can utilise it,” she adds. 

The trip inspired her to be more sustainable in her own kitchen. Here’s a recipe for a vegetable broth that works wonders for Surneni:

  • Whenever you cook, collect all the peels and unused parts of the vegetables — don’t use the spoilt or rotten parts, save those for composting — and store them in a ziplock bag. Anything from potato to capsicum and carrot peels can be stored. 
  • Fill up a pot of water, add salt and put all these peels in the water. 
  • Let it boil for an hour, then strain out the peels and the broth is ready. 
  • You can add lemon, pepper or any other flavour you might want. 
  • Store it in the fridge.

You can use this broth to cook pasta or rice, make soup or anything else that calls for water. “It’s essentially a lot of nutrients from the peels that go into the broth,” says Surneni. 

Another simple recipe Surneni shares is for ginger ale. This is especially useful in households where tea is made, since when taking off the peel from ginger for tea, a lot of the ginger comes off as well. Instead of throwing that away, make this ginger ale:

  • Boil sugar and water in a bowl.
  • Add the ginger peels into the bowl. Add more ginger depending on how potent you want the syrup to be. 
  • Add lemon zest and peel. 
  • Add any herbs of your choice, be it rosemary, basil or any other flavour profile you want. 
  • Let it boil till it’s down to a thick, syrup-like consistency. 
  • Then strain and store in a bottle. 
  • Whenever you want to have ginger ale, add 1/4th part syrup and top it off with three parts soda.

“It’s homemade, so you know what went into it. You can control the sugar. And you end up using a lot of waste,” counts off Surneni. 

If one is so inclined, in the kitchen and outside, there’s a variety of ways to use fruit and veggie peels. Cook items like chips made of potato peels and lemon skin pickle. Use pomegranate peels to dye the fabric. Make a body scrub with banana peels and sugar or use the fleshy part of an avocado peel as a moisturiser. A little bit of research and you’re on your way to a deeply sustainable and rewarding lifestyle.