You've Been Peeling Ginger Wrong Your Entire Life

It might stand to reason that every time a recipe calls for an ingredient that needs to be peeled, whether it's a carrot, potato, or an apple, you should reach for the vegetable peeler. That logic would serve you well for most ingredients that need peeling. Except for one: ginger.

Using a peeler on ginger isn't particularly effective as there are crevices created by the "eyes" on the root. The peeler simply isn't designed to maneuver around this type of area, and leaves lots of the root unpeeled. Using a peeler also takes a good chunk of the edible part with it, because the skin is so thin (via NDTV Food).

While many people likely still use a peeler for their ginger, because they think it's the only option, there's actually a much simpler method to get that papery skin off the knobby root. The good news is that the utensil you'll need to use is commonplace in every kitchen, but it's not a knife. It's actually a spoon.

Using a spoon (with slightly sharp edges if you have one) to peel ginger is something of a revelation in the kitchen. The thinness of the edge of the spoon coupled with its curved shape allows it to get into the creases of the ginger and get all the pieces of skin you would miss with a peeler. It works best if you break the ginger into smaller pieces first, and employ this hack right away when you take the ginger out of the refrigerator. 

It's important to note that this trick works because of how thin ginger skin is. Don't expect much success if you think you're going to try to use a spoon to peel a cucumber.

Given this hack, ginger becomes a significantly less intimidating ingredient, and you might find that its inclusion in stir-fries helps to brighten and enliven your dish. Given the wide-ranging health benefits associated with the spice, coupled with an easy way of preparing it to be used, there's no reason not to experiment with including ginger in dishes and drinks going forward (via Healthline).