With food costs higher than ever, you no doubt want to get the most out of the fruits and vegetables you buy. With that in mind, did you know that the rinds and peels of many types of produce are edible? You may be tossing some of the most nutritious parts without even realizing it. Below you’ll find five fruits and veggies that have edible peels and rinds, plus some delicious ways to enjoy them.

Bananas

Banana peels are safe to eat raw or cooked, and even provide important nutrients including fiber, polyphenols and carotenoids. Fiber helps with a healthy digestive tract, while polyphenols and carotenoids have antioxidant properties that can help fight free radicals that damage cells and may lead to cancer.

Before you eat them, banana peels should be thoroughly washed under cool, running water to remove any dirt, debris or microorganisms. Make sure to also remove the tough stem before using. Although you can add a banana peel, fresh or frozen, to a smoothie, cooking it first makes it easier to incorporate into recipes as it softens the peel and makes it more palatable. Try adding chopped or blended cooked banana peels into pancake, bread of muffin batter, stirring them into oatmeal, using it to make iced lattes, or bake or air-fry banana peel chips for a crunchy snack.

Sweet Potatoes

Whether it’s orange, purple or white, you can also eat the skin of sweet potatoes. Give your sweet potato a good scrub with a veggie brush, then it’s ready to cook and eat. The peel is brimming with nutrients, especially fiber. A published study from 2021 found that a sweet potato with the skin on has close to 64-percent more fiber compared to the peeled version. Next time you make mashed sweet potatoes, baked sweet potato wedges, or sweet potato soup, leave the skin on!

Watermelon

Most people don't realize the rind on a watermelon is edible. The rind is the firm, mostly white layer between the juicy pink or red flesh of the watermelon and its hard, green outer skin. Per the National Watermelon Promotion Board's 2023 Watermelon Consumer Usage Study, a watermelon is, on average, 70 percent flesh and 30 percent rind, but 62 percent of consumers throw out the rind, amounting to an average of five pounds of rind tossed per melon that could instead go straight into the kitchen. As such, using the whole watermelon — including the rind — is a sustainable way to create nutritious meals without creating food waste.

In August 2026, the USDA added watermelon rind to its Nutrition Database. A 1/3 cup of diced watermelon rind (50 grams) provides 10 calories, 2 grams of total carbs, 1 gram of fiber, 1 gram of total sugars and 4-percent the daily recommended amount of vitamin C. It’s free of fat, saturated fat and sodium. You can pickle the rind, roast it into pieces or "chips" or shred it into a slaw with cabbage, carrots and other vegetables.

Kiwifruit

Believe it or not, the outer fuzzy brown exterior of a kiwi is edible. It provides several beneficial nutrients including fiber, vitamins A and E and polyphenols. The fiber in kiwi skin is the insoluble type, which helps keeps things moving through the gastrointestinal tract. Vitamins A and E are antioxidants and protect the cells from oxidative damage. Polyphenols are beneficial plant compounds that have antioxidant properties.

Before eating, wash the kiwi thoroughly under cool, running water. If the fuzzy texture isn’t your style, try a gold kiwi, which has a smoother exterior texture. Enjoy a fresh kiwi with the skin on, blend the whole kiwi into a smoothie, or slice with the skin-on and top over yogurt, oatmeal or fruit salad.

Citrus Fruit

The peel of citrus fruits, including oranges, grapefruit, limes and lemons is edible. The gorgeous outer layer, called the zest, contains beneficial nutrients and plant compounds. The citrus peel provides fiber, vitamin C, flavonoids and carotenoids. The peel contains a fiber called pectin, which helps support digestive health, while the antioxidant vitamin C helps support the immune system and promotes collagen production. Flavonoids are plant compounds that provide benefits. Citrus peels contain flavonoids like hesperidin and naringin, which have antioxidant properties too.

Using finely grated zest adds a delicious punch of flavor to dishes. But you can also use larger pieces of the peel in a variety of ways such as dried, covered in chocolate, candied, in this Orange Peel Chicken or in this Meyer Lemon Curd Tart with Candied Lemon Peels.

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