Adventures in Produce

 

My adventures in the produce isle led me to try jicama. I’ve never had this vegetable before and thought this would be a great time to try it out. My sister in law had one before and I asked her how it tasted. She told me that was the first time she had bought it and hadn’t tried it. I like to watch Chopped on the Food Network. I’ve seen contestants use it in a raw state and make jicama slaw.  I purchased it at my local HEB. It has a rough brown exterior. It had a sticker that stated it was a product of Mexico. This vegetable one of the important components used in the Day of the Dead celebration that takes place the beginning of November (https://specialtyproduce.com/produce/Jicama_917.php).

 I knew right away it was a root vegetable because of the top and bottom. You could tell a stem was attached to the top. Jicama has an earthy smell and it’s very strong. The root is the only edible part of
jicama. The plant above the ground can be toxic to animals in human in large quantities, particularly the seeds. It’s part of the pea family which I thought was odd. (www.veggie-quest.com/2011/04/jicama-juicy-root-poison-peas). It reminded me of a turnip.

I tried to cut it in half, and it was very hard. It gave me a struggle and I wondered if it was ready to eat. I had to get a bigger knife and was finally able to cut it in half.

You can’t peel it like a potato, I tried and it didn’t work. I had to pull up some of the skin with a knife and pull the skin off it. Once the brown skin was removed there was still a white fibrous layer. I had to cut this off all the way around each half with a knife. Then I cut the jicama into smaller pieces. The texture of jicama is like a raw potato but has a bit of a sweet tone to it. It was very crunchy! The picture below is with the brown skin and white fibrous layer removed from the pieces.

This vegetable can be enjoyed in a raw or cooked state. I cut it into small match sticks and decided to incorporate it into a salad with lettuce, tomatoes, and purple onion. It was easier to cut once the brown skin and the fibrous white layer was removed from the outside. Jicama added a crunchy juicy texture to my salad. I noticed even though its taste was similar to a raw potato, it didn’t turn dark like potatoes do after sitting a while.

I would buy this vegetable again. It was priced very reasonably in HEB. While I was researching this product, I found a recipe for jicama in a cooked state that looked delicious. It was baked jicama fries (https://healthiersteps.com/recipe/baked-jicama-fries/). I'm definitely going to try this recipe!