This article provides tips on how to dry banana peels, as well as the shortcuts we’ve discovered along the way. We also cover tips on best ways to prepare the banana peel for drying, depending on our intended use.

What to Do With Dried Banana Peels

First, if you’re wondering what you’d do with dried banana peels, we cover that completely in this article on banana peels benefits and uses but here’s a brief summary of forms and uses:

• Grind into flour or powder for:
  • baking
  • nutritional supplements
  • smoothies
  • animal feed
• Chopped small or crushed for:
  • fertilizer
  • mulch
  • tea
    • for drinking
    • for watering plants

See more about banana peels benefits and uses.

Dried Banana Peels Uses

So How Do You Dry Banana Peels?

Dried banana peels will be shrunken, black, and hard but crushable and easy to snap to break. Whether you dry them whole, or chop them before drying — and then to what approximate size — depends on your intended end use.

Here are the steps for prepping banana peels for drying. If you’re going to use the banana peels for flour or powder, you can dry them whole, then break in half or into large chunks and place into your grinder.

We use the Vitamix grain grinder pitcher for larger quantities or this little blender and spice mill for smaller amounts.

Steps for Preparing Banana Peels for Dehydration

1. WASH and dry bananas gently, (consider using organic bananas for healthier skins).
2. PEEL the ripe bananas
3. FRUIT – set banana fruit (pulp) aside for other use, or freeze in freezer bags for later snacking, smoothies, ice cream or baking, such as this favorite easy banana French toast casserole.
4. CUT off top stem piece and bottom blossom end.
5. STRIP banana peels into 3 or more horizontal strips. For smaller pieces, it’s each to strip peels vertically into thin ribbons.
   NOTE: If drying whole peels, skip the next two steps.
   
   IF CHOPPING PEELS FOR PLANT MULCH OR TEA:
   NOTE: Some people prefer to chop with scissors; I use a knife. So if using a knife:
6. LAY peels out flat, outer skin side down. The skin can be tough, so easier to cut with the softer inside of the skin facing up. You can stack one on top of the other to cut multiple ribbons at once, although it may not save much time as you will still need to separate the pieces to lay out to dry.
7. CHOP the stack of peels into thin slices or pieces. OR, use scissors and cut up one whole banana peel at a time.
   
8. PLACE, skin side down on your drying surface (e.g., cookie sheet, microwave plate, sieve or food dehydrator tray, depending on which drying method you plan to use).

Chopped Banana Peels Prepped for Drying

Drying Banana Peels, Chopped or Whole

If you’re going to end up using your dried banana peels for tea or fertilizer, we find that it’s easier to chop them to size first before dehydrating.

However, sometimes you just need to go ahead and toss the whole or stripped peel/s directly onto the dehydrator to save time in the moment. In that case there are several ways to crush the whole dried banana skins, which we cover next.

Learn more of the many banana peels benefits and uses here.

Drying Whole Banana Peels

4 Ways to Crush Dried Banana Peels

1. CRUSH: Place dried peels into a freezer zipper bag and crush between your hands and pound with your fists or a heavy wooden spoon
2. POUND: Place dried peels or chunks on a plastic or silicone cutting mat and crush with fist or a large hard spoon
3. PULSE: Break whole dried banana peels into a couple smaller pieces and drop into a food processor and pulse until reduced to the desired size.
4. STOMP: For breaking up to use in or on the soil around your plants, you can even place them in a bag on the floor and stomp on them. Probably not for use for tea for people in case little punctures in the bag allow in debris.

If using this aggressive hand-crushing approach, just be aware that the dried banana peels can have sharp edges, so be careful not to puncture your hands. Chances are that the plastic freezer bag will be compromised with tiny punctures or cuts, so you may not be able to use it for storage afterwards.

Banana Peels in Bag for Crushing

How to Powder Dried Banana Peels

If you prefer to powder your dried banana peels, break up the whole peels or chunks into a coffee or spice grinder, or into a Vitamix flour mill, or other flour mill grain grinder. Grind until powdered.

Add powdered banana peels to banana recipes like this Banana French toast casserole or egg banana pancakes. You can easily add 1/4 cup powdered banana peel to most recipes calling for bananas for greater nutritional benefit and added fiber.

Banana Peel Powder or Flour

Different Ways to Dry Banana Peels

Drying Banana Peels in a Dehydrator – The Simplest Way to Dry Banana Peels

We use our Nesco electric dehydrator year round, and it’s often going constantly summer through fall. We enjoy making good use of all kinds of herbs, edible leaves of fruits and vegetables, and even edible tree leaves!

To dry banana peels in a dehydrator is simple and carefree. You don’t have to worry about wind or pest as with sun drying, or constantly checking and resetting the timer as with oven drying.

It’s also super easy to toss in a few whole banana peels as you have them. Put them in your dehydrator on your fruit setting and they should be dried in just a few hours.

It’s Easy to Dry Banana Peels in a Dehydrator

Drying Banana Peels in the Microwave – The Fastest Way to Dry Banana Peels

When it comes to how to dry banana peels in the microwave, time and settings can vary by microwave power, and whether or not you use the defrost setting versus full power.^[1]https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/2374068X.2018.1545201

But you can use this as a general guideline, and tweak to adjust accordingly, by checking and testing it after a couple of minutes, then 30 seconds at a time, until dried and crisp.

CAUTION: DO NOT PLACE WHOLE BANANA PEEL INTO THE MICROWAVE, and do NOT cook it for more than 2 minutes at a time on full power. In one experiment seen online, the banana peel caught fire at the 1:14 minute mark on this video.

We use our microwave for reheating coffee, tea and leftovers, and for making popcorn, in our favorite silicone microwave popcorn popper. However, when it comes to the healthiest foods and cooking methods, while we haven’t yet studied it, irradiating food doesn’t feel like the best option.

The Fastest Way to Dry Banana Peels… but is it the Best…?

While the microwave is the fastest way to dry banana peels, it is our least favorite way. While the microwave does do a great job of dehydrating banana peels to a light crispness, we wonder about the nutritional value.

For more, see our section on dehydrating bananas for tea, the microwave dried banana peels are less dense and float, rather than sink. The color of the brew is a lot darker, and it has a slightly more bitter taste than the dehydrator or low heat dried banana peels.

Steps for Drying Banana Peels in the Microwave

• PLACE chopped banana peel on a microwave-safe plate. (Banana slices will stick due to the sugar, but banana peel will not stick, especially if you place it peel side down.
• MICROWAVE:
  • ON FULL POWER, microwave for 1 minute, check, then continue microwaving in 30 second increments. As soon as it darkens, keep checking it for dryness and crispiness until done in 30 seconds intervals. Our microwave took 5-6 minutes total on full power.
  • ON DEFROST POWER – microwaves vary by manufacturer and age, so best to check with your owners manual for dehydrating fruits or other similarly density vegetables such as onions. The main benefit of the defrost mode is that it’s at reduced heat and so isn’t likely to burn your peels. However, the first time around, you’ll want to monitor the settings and time so as to refine what work best in your microwave.
• STORE cooled and dried banana peels in an airtight container, or apply them around your plants to use as a natural fertilizer for plants.

For more on natural fertilizers for plants, you might enjoy this article on using coffee grounds for plants and this one on how to make compost tea.

Drying Banana Peels in the Microwave

How to Dry Banana Peels in the Oven

Depending on your minimum oven temperature, and the thickness, moisture, and freshness of your banana peels, this could take from 2-4 hours. Our toaster oven took 3 hours at 150°F / 65°C to dehydrate banana peels to a nice crispness, and 6 hours for banana fruit slices.

1. PREHEAT your oven to the warmer setting (or lowest possible temperature, at around 150°F / 66°C or below).
2. CHOP or dice banana peels
3. SPREAD chopped banana peels out on a cookie sheet on parchment paper, peel side down. (It’s optional; but we like to use parchment paper for ease of cleaning and funneling dried peels into the storage container).
4. PLACE in oven; check every hour until completely dried.

Drying Banana Peels in the Oven

How to Dry Banana Peels in the Sun – The Cheapest Way to Dry Banana Peels

Our favorite way to dehydrate banana peels is to sun dry them. The sun brings life and vitality to our planet, so one might conjecture that it imbues the foods it dries with additional vitality.

However, the science that we looked into on the surface, varies widely depending on the various methods of dehydration as well as the food being dried.

So without diving into the nutritional research, one thing we can say for sure is that sun-drying is free and easy!

Sun Drying Larger Quantities of Banana Peels

For laying out larger quantities of banana peels, we use old window screens and four bricks or concrete blocks positioned at each corner of the bottom screen layered with banana peels. For protection from wind or critters, you might want to place another screen over the top of that, especially if it’s a windy day.

If it’s a warm sunny day, your peels should dry in 4-8 hours. If there’s wind, the peels will dry quicker, but you’ll want to weight down the top screen with a brick at each corner of the top screen.

Sun Drying Smaller Quantities of Banana Peels

So what to do to dry that one or two banana skins you have after enjoying a banana? We chop them up and place them in a mesh sieve and sit it out on the porch in the sun. Before day’s end, you’ll have enough dried banana peels to make tea or to place around a plant for fertilizer.

Sun Dried Banana Peels

Drying Banana Peels for Plants

To use dried banana peels for plant, we chop them small, dehydrate them, then sprinkle around the base of plants directly. You can also place in them in the hole or pot of a new plant you’re planting.

Alternately, you can sprinkle ground dried banana peels around the plants for easier assimilation into the soil. Instead of powdered peels, some prefer to soak raw chopped banana peels in water for a few days, strain and then water plants with that.

See also, Disadvantages and Benefits of Banana Water for Plants.

Drying Banana Peels for Tea

For dehydrating banana peels for tea, we prefer to chop the peels small. However if you’re short on time, but have a peel to use you can dry a whole banana peel in just a few hours using your preferred method.

Once dry, you can break it up the whole dried peel into a few large chunks, place it in pyrex measuring cup and cover to steep with boiling water. Super simple and you’ll have banana peel tea in 5-10 minutes.

Dried Banana Peels for Tea

The Best Way to Dry One or Two Banana Peels at a Time

In winter, we chop the banana peel, place it in a wire sieve, or on a paper towel, and place it over a heat register. It will dry it in about 8 hours, or overnight. It’s common for us to have banana peels drying on our heat vents in winter.

In the summer, we often dry one or two bananas at a time, only in the sun, as shown above, instead of over the heat register.

Drying Banana Peels Over Heat Vent

Ways to Use Dried Banana Peels

And, as promised, here are links to more info on why you might want to dry banana peels!

• Banana Peels Benefits and Uses
• Can Chickens Eat Banana Peels?

How to Dry Banana Peels