Edible Parts of a Peanut?

The entire peanut, including the shell, is edible. I often eat the shells with the peanuts.

Among other things, Wikipedia says this about what a peanut is:

"The peanut, or groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) is a species in the legume family Fabaceae native to South America. It is an annual herbaceous plant growing to 30 to 50 cm (1 to 1 1/2 feet) tall. The leaves are opposite, pinnate with four leaflets (two opposite pairs; no terminal leaflet), each leaflet 1 to 7 cm (1/3 to 2.75 inches) long and 1 to 3 cm (1/3 to 1 inch) broad. The flowers are a typical peaflower in shape, 2 to 4 cm (3/4 to one and a half inches) across, yellow with reddish veining. After pollination, the fruit develops into a legume 3 to 7 cm (1 to 2 inches) long containing 1 to 3 (rarely 4) seeds, which forces its way underground to mature. Although a nut in the culinary sense, in the botanical sense the fruit of the peanut is a woody, indehiscent legume or pod and not a nut."

All of the peanut that is INSIDE the shell is ok to eat. Sometimes there is like a really thin redish shell on the inside peanut and you can eat that too.

Actually peanuts contain dangerous enzyme blockers and slight levels of poison. For more info:

http://www.earth360.com/diet_paleodiet_balzer.html

Best not to eat any legumes for this reason.

you may eat the entire peanut but most people dont eat the shells

you theoretically can eat the entire thing....itd probably give you some wicked bowel distress, most people tend to just crack the shell and eat the part that's inside.