I love to cook, but I hate to clean up. Most people feel the same way, I’m sure. So when I discovered this method for peeling potatoes or carrots without having to pick up peels for days afterwards, my life has been much happier!
It’s a simple concept, really, and one that seems to be more effective than any other I’ve tried. Grandma always peeled into a bowl or onto a cutting board. Then you had to scrape the slippery peelings out of the bowl into the trash, which was messy.
Mom always peeled over the trashcan…which was a vast improvement over Grandma’s method, but I never got all the peelings into the trash, so I’d still be down on my knees, scraping up those slippery peelings that missed the trashcan, plus my back would hurt from bending over to try to get the peelings in the trash…so that wasn’t the best option.
The third generation (that’d be me) approaches it all differently. I still use Mama’s potato peeler, but cleanup is a breeze with the new method.
First, you cut off both ends on a flexible cutting mat:
Then, place a plastic grocery bag in an empty sink. Spread it out as open and wide as you can get it. Then begin moving your peeler (or a paring knife if you don’t have a peeler) from one end to the other of your carrot.
The peelings will conveniently fall into the grocery sack, like this:
When you are finished, simply tie the bag closed and carry it to the trashcan (or dump into your compost pile if that’s your thing). No slippery peels to clean up, no mess on the floor, and the bonus is that your back doesn’t hurt from bending over at an awkward angle to peel into the trashcan!
Tomorrow I’ll post on how to make a crockpot roast with carrots and potatoes, but I wanted to show you my method for peeling potatoes and carrots first!
I usually just peel over a paper towel and it works great.