Peel ginger by scraping it

If you're new to ginger, you might pick up a piece at the shop and think, "How the heck do I peel this?" Your first instinct may be to grab for a vegetable peeler, but ginger is knobbier than a potato or carrot, so you'll wind up chopping away at much of the meat to get the peel off. For the same reason, a paring knife would not work — besides, you definitely don't want to chop off your skin in the process. Instead, nothing fancier than a metal spoon is required to peel ginger.

You'll need to scrape the skin off the root with the edge of the spoon. Because the root is thick, you don't have to worry about breaking it, so peel as hard as you can with your trusted instrument. Once the skin has been removed, your possibilities are limitless, and you have the maximum quantity of ginger root remaining.