how-to: peel a kiwi (mostly) without a knife

In the years I’ve worked in bakeries and restaurants, I’ve made a LOT of fruit tarts. Those tarts usually required lots of kiwi, and those kiwi must be peeled. I’ve never been very good at using a paring knife to get the fuzzy peel off of a kiwi because I always cut too deep and end up removing a lot of the fruit along with the peel. When too much of the fruit is removed, you end up with weird, faceted-looking kiwi. See?


A former co-worker showed me this trick years ago and I love it. It’s very simple and it’s been mentioned on lots of other food blogs, but hey, what’s one more?

Spoon-Peeled Kiwi!

First, start with a few kiwi. You’ll need a knife for slicing off the ends, and a regular kitchen spoon.


Using the knife (a paring knife works best cause it’s small like the kiwi!), slice off the ends of the kiwi.


With the spoon in your right hand (if you’re right-handed) and the kiwi in your left hand, insert the spoon into the bottom of the kiwi (with the rounded side facing out) just between the peel and the fruit. Be careful not to break through the thin skin of the kiwi.



You can use your left thumb as a guide by keeping slight pressure on the left edge of the spoon under the skin. Make sure the tip of the spoon is almost poking out the top cut edge of the kiwi so that you’ll get all the skin off. With the left edge of the spoon slightly pressing into your left thumb, simultaneously turn the fruit away from you while turning the spoon toward you, so that the spoon moves toward your left and goes between the peel and the fruit. If you find that the spoon starts threatening to break through the peel, rotate the spoon down slightly toward your left palm so that it’s digging more into the fruit and not pushing upward through the peel. Notice how you can see the edge of the spoon through the peel? Keep somewhat firm pressure on the edge of the spoon with your left thumb so that you can control how deep the spoon is cutting into the fruit.


Keep rotating the spoon and the fruit until you get back to where you started from. Pull the spoon out and slip the (hopefully) intact peel from the kiwi. If you accidentally break through the skin at any point, just re-insert the spoon on the side at the area where the separation occurred, and continue to move the spoon around under the peel.


Boom! Perfectly round, peeled kiwi!


From here, you can slice the kiwi and use it to perfectly decorate your fruit tarts, put into fruit salad, or just layer on a plate so you can admire your handiwork and eat some tasty kiwi!






Gorgeous, round slices of kiwi. What a sight to behold!

Stay tuned for the next how-to, coming soon!

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