Kiwi is one of the delicious and nutritious fruits you need for your meals. The fruit has a juicy & bright green flesh having crunchy speckles, a fuzzy brown exterior, and some tiny black seeds. Kiwis are small in size, making it easy to cut the fruits in various ways, from fun star shapes to standard slices.
Cutting the fruit is always challenging, especially for individuals who have never cut it before, as the process involves various steps. In addition, the absence of a core to cut around, the thin skin makes it hard to cut the fruit properly. Furthermore, the ability of a ripe kiwi to mush in your hands complicates the proper cutting further. This article outlines the appropriate ways to cut a kiwi to enjoy the fruit's sweet taste, tangy and get the nutritional benefits.
The best way to cut your kiwi depends on how you want to use the fruits. We've got various ways of cutting the fruit before eating. You can choose to scoop it with a spoon, use a sharp knife to slice it into star cuts, or simple knife cuts. Furthermore, you can also cut the fruit by using a knife for slicing and scooping.
How to tell if a Kiwi is ready for cutting
Before cutting the kiwi, it'll be imperative to ensure ripe fruit. It's usually daunting to check whether the fruit is ripe or not, as the skin doesn't change its brown color. Additionally, you can't use the size to tell whether it's ripe, as the fruits taste the same despite their sizes. Therefore, the best way to tell a ripe kiwi is by checking on the wrinkles or blemishes on the skin or by feeling it.
While checking for a ripe kiwi by feeling, you'll have to press it gently using your thumb. If you feel some slight pressure, the fruit is ripe and ready for consumption. Nevertheless, if you don't feel any pressure, and the fruit feels hard, your fruit is still unripe and not ready for consumption.
Unripe kiwis aren't suitable for consumption as they've got a slightly astringent taste and usually have a hardcore. Furthermore, an overripe fruit is also not good, as it becomes too soft, making it very hard to slice or cut through them. The best alternative for softer or overripe kiwis is to blend the fruits into a smoothie, shake or create a refreshing summer sorbet.
It'll be a wise choice to purchase firm kiwis and wait until they get ripe to eat them instead of buying overripe fruits. Alternatively, you can also choose ripe kiwis if you want to consume them immediately. Firm kiwis take a few days to one week to ripen if you store them at room temperature and ensure they're away from direct sunlight.
Notably, we've got a way of speeding up the ripening of your kiwis. For instance, if you've got unripe kiwis and you can't wait for long, you can place the fruits in a brown polythene bag having fruits that produce or excretes ethylene gas to speed the ripening process. Bananas, pears, and apples are the best alternatives that produce this hormone, enhancing ripening fruits. Alternatively, you can purchase the fruits in an enclosed container with uncooked rice, as it traps the ethylene the kiwis produce to enhance the ripening process.
After ripening, it'll be good to store the fruits well to prevent them from going bad. Importantly, keep them away from the other fruits in the kitchen or refrigerator. Kiwis tend to overripe when you store them near the other fruits, as they're sensitive to ethylene gas the other fruits will provide. Proper storage enhances their lifeline, as a ripe kiwi can stay under appropriate storage for up to one week.
The 3 Tools You Need to Cut a Kiwi
When learning how to cut a kiwi, it'll be vital to understand the essential tools you'll require to complete the cutting procedures. The tools you need for cutting your kiwi will largely depend on your chosen methods for cutting the fruit. Nonetheless, the essential tools when cutting a kiwi are a paring knife, a tablespoon, and a cutting board.
Furthermore, you can also replace the paring knife with a vegetable peeler, but the paring knife remains the better option. The paring blade makes a better alternative, as it allows you to gauge the pressure you're applying on the fruit appropriately.
In addition, the knife offers a perfect size for cutting kiwis appropriately. The knife's handy design makes it easy to hold and allows you to maneuver around this fruit, as they come with the best grips. Lastly, the paring knife comes with a short blade that you can use to cut effortlessly through the kiwi lengthwise or crosswise.
When slicing your fruit, a stable cutting board is another vital tool you'll need to get accurate slices. Depending on how you want to cut the kiwi, a tablespoon is always an optional tool. The tablespoon plays a significant role in choosing the slicing and scooping method of cutting your fruit.
Cut a Kiwi 3 ways
Depending on how you use or eat the fruit, we've got various ways to cut a kiwi before consuming it. Below are the three popular ways how to cut a kiwi:
Basic Knife Method
The basic knife method is a common and easy method of cutting a kiwi. Most individuals refer to it as the sloping and scooping method, as you'll use a sharp knife to slice the fruit lengthwise into two halves. Then, cut it into wedges, smaller sections, or dice before eating. Below is the process of cutting your kiwi using the basic knife method:
● Wash your fruit well with vinegar and clean water to remove dirt or any surface bacteria
● Place your fruit on the cutting board, preferably on its long side
● Then use a small and sharp knife to slice off the kiwi on both ends
● Flip the fruit to allow a straight or upright posture
● Use the paring knife to remove the skin or peel off the fruit in a downward motion and keep rotating it to ensure you remove all the skin.
● After peeling off all the skin, slice the fruit vertically to produce wedges.
● Alternatively, you can slice it into smaller dice or round sections before eating.
Spoon Method
The spoon method involves the slicing and scooping technique to achieve perfect round kiwi slices. Instead of cutting your fruit in half, you use a sharp knife to cut off the kiwis on both ends, the blossom part, and the tough stem.
Then, while holding the fruit in your non-dominant palm, slide the spoon to separate the fruit's skin. Repeat the procedure until you completely remove all the skin around your fruit and then slice it. Below is the stepwise procedures for cutting your kiwi using the spoon method:
● Wash your kiwi in clean water
● Place the fruit on the cutting board, lying on its long side
● Use a small and sharp knife to slice the fruit's both sides
● Insert the small teaspoon gently near the kiwi's edge
● Push the small spoon against sides while rotating it around
● Ensure you repeat it and bring the spoon closer to the skin to achieve the best results
● After completing a circle of rotating the spoon around the kiwi, you'll have to easily slide out the peeled fruit.
● Use a knife and the cutting board to slice the peeled kiwi into two halves and smaller dices or wedges. More so, you can slice it to form pastry-ready coins.
● Alternatively, after peeling the whole fruit, you can use a paring knife to dice or slice it into small cubes or rounds, which you can use for your yogurt or fruit salad.
Star Cut with Knife Method
It's a way of cutting kiwi that enhances a fancy feeling when eating the fruit, as you achieve a star-cut of the fruit. When using this method to cut the fruit, you'll need a sharp paring knife to achieve the impressive star shapes on either side of the fruit. Below is the stepwise procedure for having the star cut with the knife method:
● After washing the fruit, you can either place it on the cutting board or hold it onto your non-dominant hand.
● Insert your paring knife's point diagonally into the fruit's halfway
● You can also insert the paring knife beside the first cut but in an opposite diagonal direction to achieve diagonal slices
● Depending on your first cut, you can either make a ' v" or a caret sign
● Then continue poking the paring knife on the fruit's midline to create a zigzag shape
● Make deep cuts to ensure the blade reaches your fruit's center
● After completing the cutting, grip the kiwi's both ends and separate the pieces
● After the separation, you'll achieve impressive star shapes on all the halves
Wrapping Up
Kiwis are sweet, tasty, and nutritious fruits everyone would wish to have on their dining table. Their refreshingly delicious nature and unique flavor make them beat the other fruits. However, most individuals find it challenging to find the appropriate way to cut them before consuming them. After confirming they're ripe, we've got various ways how to cut a kiwi for your different diet needs. You can enjoy the fresh slices, stars-shaped or scoops of this delicious fruit by choosing one of the methods above, suiting the way you want to eat them.
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