Boosting Health

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Many people include fruits and vegetables in their daily diet for their health benefits. But most are throwing away the most nutritious part of produce: the peels. In today's Close Up, we will share no-waste tips on how to use fruit and vegetable peels to boost your health and enjoy new flavors.

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We ordinarily consume fruits and vegetables. Their peels are just thrown away in most cases. However, these peels contain a concentration of various nutrients. They are rich in Vitamin C, the antioxidant saponin and a substance called heperidin, which helps lower blood pressure. Cleaning fruits and vegetables well is very crucial in order to use their peels in foods. Vegetables should be washed in running water with a toothbrush to remove dirt and pesticides thoroughly. It is good to soak fruits in a bowl of water added with vinegar or baking soda.

[Soundbite] Ryu Ji-na (Culinary Expert): "When washing tangerines or oranges, it is good to soak and rub them in water mixed with vinegar or baking soda."

Let's make a pot of nutritious rice with these well-cleaned vegetables Unpeeled vegetables like a radish, carrot and burdock root are diced. These vegetables are stir-fried in oil and placed atop multiple kinds of grains. It takes only 35 minutes to make a pot of nutritious vegetable rice. The rice is mixed with the "Yangnyeomjang" sauce. With the texture of vegetables felt throughout the mouth, the rice fulfills both palatable and nutritious properties. Next, let's make vegetable fries. An addition of tangerine peels turns the fries into a special snack. Well-cleaned tangerine peels and sliced vegetables are mixed in batter. Then they are deep-fried in oil piece by piece. The vegetable fries taste refreshing with a tint of tangerines' flavor.

[Soundbite] Prof. Kim Young-seong (Shinhan University) : "Tangerine peels contain the substance hespridin to help lower blood pressure and protect nerve cells."

The red-brown papery outer skin of onions are commonly thrown away. However, it contains quercetin, a substance that helps reduce cholesterol and delay aging, dozens of times more than the flesh. Let's make a healthy tea with the onion skin. Onions are washed well in running water. The skin is peeled off carefully. It is split in small bits and dried in sunlight. They are filled in tea filter bags and brewed in boiling water. This onion skin tea has a deep, piquant flavor. Dried onion skin can be stored in a plastic bag for later use. The skin of fish can be used for making a good dish. Dried yellow pollacks are a very useful ingredient. The skin of dried yellow pollacks is rich in collagen, a protein that has multiple beauty benefits and boosts detoxification and the discharge of bodily wastes. Dried pollacks are hard to eat. So they should be beaten to make them softer. Their skin is removed carefully. The skin is cut into bite-sized pieces. They are then fried in oil. Salt, pepper and cheese powder are sprinkled to add a flavor. Here is a dish of chewy and savor pollack skin fries. Have a second thought before throwing away the peels of vegetables and fruits. You can come up with more astonishing healthy uses of them.