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We recently saw and picked up some lychee from the grocery store.

It appears that the skin is inedible, but my girlfriend is wondering if it could be used for anything. Should the lychee skin just be tossed, or can it be used in some way?

rumtscho
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James Skemp
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  • Your question is a very nice use of the culinary-uses tag. Still, discussing the non-culinary uses of the skins is out of our scope. So I removed the sentence which invited non-cooking uses. – rumtscho Jul 12 '16 at 14:24
  • Perhaps a [hat, a brooch, or a pterodactyl](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8oAQOvOEXY)... – Daniel Griscom Jul 19 '16 at 21:08

1 Answers1

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The rind is inedible: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lychee

I've had a lot to do with Asian culture, both in and out of the realm of the culinary arts, and have never seen or heard of lychee rind used for anything. There are some fruits like lime, lemon, grapefruit, etc., wherein the rind can be used for other purposes, or even eaten. However, in this case, I think the most you could do to make use of it is to compost it and use it as nourishment for a garden. -- Which would certainly help feed your plants. :)

Another idea that is that sometimes things are put on the plate purely for decoration. The peel could be cut into decorative shapes and put on the plate with the peeled lychees, if you have guests over. You just need to make sure they know the peel is not edible. I've never tried this before, so I cannot attest to how well they work for this purpose, but it's an idea more relevant to cooking/presentation.