Fun fact: you don’t actually have to peel kiwis if you don’t want to - the fuzzy skin is edible! But if you’re trying to get to that juicy, sweet fruit without chewing through the skin, here are two ways to easily peel a kiwi, as well as how to cut a kiwi once you’ve peeled it.
How to Tell a Kiwi Is Ripe
Before you peel and cut up a kiwi, make sure it’s ripe. Although the brown peel doesn’t change colour, all you have to do is gently feel the kiwi to tell if it’s ripe. The kiwi should give when you gently squeeze it, but your finger shouldn’t leave a dent in it.
How to Peel a Kiwi With a Vegetable Peeler
You might prefer using this technique because it removes just the peel and very little green flesh. Kiwis are tiny, so every little bit of fruit is precious.
1. Cut off both ends of the kiwi with a sharp serrated knife. A serrated knife is designed for foods with tough outsides and soft insides (like crusty bread, tomatoes, or soft fruit like peaches), because the blade can slice through the outside without squishing the inside.
2. Hold the kiwi in the palm of one hand and run the peeler gently down and around the fruit to slip off the skin without pushing down too hard. Rotate the kiwi and continue removing wide strips of skin until it’s completely peeled. Be careful, as the fruit can be slippery! If your peeler is leaving your kiwi a smushed wreck, it may be time to replace your peeler - just like knife blades, vegetable peeler blades can go dull too!
3. Now lay the kiwi down on its side and cut down the length of the fruit to create coined-shaped slices.
How to Peel a Kiwi With a Spoon
This technique is great for cutting kiwis when you don’t have any special gadgets. Maybe you brought a kiwi into the office as a snack and want to enjoy it at your desk.
- Cut off both ends of the kiwi with a sharp serrated knife.
- Slide the bowl of a large spoon as close to the skin as you can and rotate the spoon to scoop the flesh out.
- Lay the kiwi down on its side and cut down the length of the fruit to create coined-shaped slices.
Different Ways to Cut Kiwi
The most common way to cut kiwi is described above - slice down the length of the kiwi to turn the fruit into coin-shaped pieces.
However, you could also make one cut down the length of the kiwi slicing it into two long halves, then slice down the length of each half to create half-moon shaped pieces.
Some people simply prefer to cut a kiwi in half crosswise without peeling it first and eat the flesh out of the skin with a spoon. The kiwi skin acts like a tiny little bowl.
The way you end up cutting your kiwi fruit is up to you - feel free to get creative.
