A spoon

Yes, a spoon isn’t sharp. And you can’t cut yourself with one. But a spoon can peel two foods better than a knife: fresh ginger and kiwifruit.

To peel ginger, simply scrape its skin with the side of a teaspoon. Removing the skin with a spoon is faster, easier, and results in a higher yield than when using a knife. This is because ginger always has an irregular shape. If you do use a knife, then by the time you’ve trimmed it and cut off the peel, you’ve lost quite a bit of the ginger. And in the same amount of time, you’d have finished the task with a spoon.

Kiwifruit uses a different technique and spoon. Cut off the ends of the kiwifruit. Then, slip a tablespoon between the kiwifruit’s flesh and skin. Gently rotate the spoon around the outside of the fruit. The skin will pop off, and you’ll have a round, peeled kiwifruit. If you peel a kiwifruit with a knife, you probably won’t end up with a smooth, round, peeled fruit. It’ll have straight sides where you trimmed off the skin with your knife.