I don’t know about you, but I feel like I have tested a bunch of different vegetable peelers throughout the years and nothing has really worked well. I have never done specific research to find the best vegetable peeler, but have always found myself at the store looking for a new one because the last one I bought did not work very well. So, as I continue on my quest to learn more about fruits and vegetables and how to properly prepare them, I decided it was time to do some research and to find the best vegetable peeler on the market, that was the most practical for at-home use.
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The Best Vegetable Peelers on the Market
According to what I could find throughout all of my internet searching, there are two stand-out vegetable peelers: The Kuhn Rikon Original Swiss Peeler and the OXO Good Grips Pro Swivel Peeler. I decided to buy them and try them for myself to see which one works best for everyday, at-home use.
Different Types of Vegetable Peelers
As it turns out, there is more to picking a vegetable peeler than meets the eye! There are three main factors to consider:
- Blade Type
- Peeler Type
- Peeler Size
Blade Type
There are three different types of blades: stainless steel, carbon steel and ceramic blades. In the case of the two peelers that I reviewed, the Kuhn Rikon is a carbon steel blade and the OXO Good Grips Pro Swivel is a stainless steel blade. This is important to note, both in the efficiency of peeling, as well as in the maintenance and care needed to maintain the blade. For example, the carbon steel blades can easily have issues with rust.
Peeler Type
There are two types of peelers: a straight peeler and a Y-shaped peeler. This refers to the actual shape of the peeler. As you can see, the Kuhn Rikon is a Y-shaped peeler and the OXO Good Grips Pro Swivel is a straight peeler. Both types of peelers can peel moving in both directions: either towards you or away from you. The main difference is how you grip and move your wrist as you peel the fruit, vegetable, or in some cases, piece of cheese. You can see more on this in the review video below.
In addition to the shape of the peeler, there is also the option as to whether the peeler swivels or not, which can apply to both peeler shapes. I have had positive experiences with swivel-type peelers previously, but that is solely in comparison to the straight peelers that do not swivel. I do not think that I have previously had any experience with the Y-shaped peelers.
Peeler Size
Kuhn Rikon Original Swiss Peeler vs. OXO Good Grips Pro Swivel Peeler
These were the two most recommended, so they were the two that I tried. To give a full review of both products, I tried peeling multiple vegetables, including potatoes, sweet potatoes, winter squash, carrots and cucumbers, in order to fully demonstrate which one works best. My honest thoughts for each one are listed below.
- Blade Type: Carbon steel
- Peeler Type: Y-shaped (non-swivel)
- Peeler Size: Small
- Pros:
- It works – It does a good job at peeling the different vegetables. I was not expecting it to be able to withstand peeling a butternut squash, but it performed better than expected.
- It is cheap – At the time of writing this, it is around the $5 price point.
- Cons:
- It is too small – This peeler is really small, to the point that it fits awkwardly in my hand (I’m 5’4″) and makes it a little hard when trying to peel a larger, uniquely shaped vegetable, which I would imagine would fit a lot worse in a larger person’s hand.
- Unprotected blade – The blade on the peeler is unprotected, so you need to pay extra attention while peeling. I cannot imagine using it to peel in the direction towards you.
- It cannot reach all misshapen areas – This peeler was unable to reach some of the potato eyes. It is advertised as the bottom portion of the peeler being able to get the potato eyes out, but I do not see how that is possible and it did not work for me.
- It is not dishwasher safe – It is advertised as not being able to be washed in the dishwasher, and naturally, I tested that because as far as I am concerned, everything, except for special knives, should be able to be ran through the dishwasher. It turns out that it really is not dishwasher safe because it came out with rust spots all over it (due to the carbon steel blade).
- Blade Type: Stainless steel
- Peeler Type: Straight (swivel)
- Peeler Size: Medium
- Pros:
- It works really well – It peels very easily and is so smooth. It just like glides across the vegetables. I attempted the acorn squash with this and the blade still glided across the squash (that is not to say there were no difficulties due to the ridges, but the peeler handled them gracefully!).
- Easy to grip – The size of the peeler fits easily into my hand, which makes it a lot easier to grip in one hand and to hold the vegetable in the other hand.
- Swivel blade – This really makes a difference and makes it a lot easier to peel.
- It can reach misshapen areas – This peeler was able to get all of the potato eyes and crazy angles in the sweet potato I used it to peel. There is also a portion of the peeler that is specific to potato eyes, but I did not need to use that to get the potato eyes out of the potato.
- Dishwasher safe – There were no issues when this vegetable peeler was ran through the dishwasher.
- Cons:
- Price point – This peeler is a little more than twice the cost of the Kuhn Rikon Original Swiss Peeler. At the time of publishing this post, it is around the $13 price point.
Comparison of the Two Peelers
Below, you can see how well each peeler worked for the different vegetables.
BEFORE
AFTER
The Best Vegetable Peeler
My favorite was the OXO Good Grips Pro Swivel Peeler. To be honest, the fact that the Kuhn Rikon Original Swiss Peeler cannot be ran through the dishwasher was a deal-breaker for me. But even before that, the OXO Good Grips Pro Swivel Peeler outperformed it by a long shot.
If you enjoyed this post, you might also be interested in the following reviews:
I started with your original peeler. I agree that it does the job. However, even with apples you wonder. My pick would
be the OXO. OXO is a good company that makes some good product. (I don’t like all of them.). But I do like stainless.
And I do want to be able to clean it easily. OXO make a Y peeler. Did you ever compare their Y peeler with their straight
peeler. Their Y peeler is small. But a lot of people like it. (See Amazon.) From my point of view the Y peeler would be
somewhat restrictive. I might be wrong because I never used a Y peeler. For example, it seems to me that the Y peeler
would require a different technique to use to peel an apple than the straight peeler–you wouldn’t be able to use the wrist
as much. Anyway, thanks.