Jicama
No sooner had I first read the word ‘jicama’ this summer than a recipe I wanted to make called for it. Until this point, I couldn’t have told you if jicama was a vegetable, a female name, or a Mexican city.
Looking at the vegetable itself isn’t much help, either; the jicama I bought looked like an overgrown russet potato, except lumpier, for an overall appearance not entirely unlike the trash pile from Fraggle Rock.
My recipe called for slicing, but I could hardly get my sharpest knife into the darn thing. My boyfriend explained that it’d be easier if I peeled the jicama first (it was).
After proceeding with the peeling and slicing, I tasted the white, firm jicama flesh; it had the crispness and consistency of water chestnuts or radish, with a slightly spicy taste. My friends who had heard of jicama said they’d eaten it raw, on salads. But I used some of mine in a cooked black-bean-and-quinoa salad, my boyfriend used some in tomato/mango salsa, and it was a good addition to both.
Here’s the recipe I made (ish; I’m never much for following recipes closely), from Clean Food: A Seasonal Guide to Eating Close to the Source
Ingredients:
3/4 cup quinoa
1 1/4 cup water
sea salt
3 cups black beans, cooked
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1 mango, peeled, pitted and diced
1 cup peeled and diced jicama
1 cup halved cherry tomatoes (I left these out, b/c I dislike cold tomatoes, & it was just fine)
1/4 cup toasted sunflower seeds
1/4 cup toasted pumpkin seeds
Dressing:
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons lime juice
1/4 cup apricot nectar or juice
2 jalapenos, minced and seeded
1/2 cup chopped fresh mint
Salt and pepper
Bring water to boil and add quinoa and salt. Cover, reduce heat and simmer until all water is absorbed (about 15 minutes). Remove from heat and set aside to cool.Place beans, onion, mango and jicama in large bowl. Fluff cooled quinoa with fork, add to bowl and gently fold to combine.In small bowl, whisk together all dressing ingredients. Pour dressing over salad and toss to coat. Fold in tomatoes, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds just before serving.
I actually heated up everything together just before serving, and piled into onto a base of corn tortilla, though you could totally eat it plain, eat it cold, even keep the whole dish raw by simply sprouting the quinoa and soaking the beans instead of cooking.
So so so so so so good. And easy to make a bunch at once to either feed a bunch of friends, or use in different meals throughout the week. The dressing is key! But substitute if you feel the need; I left out the mint and used hot red pepper instead of jalapeno.
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Cube it up and mix it with some clementine or orange slices (squeeze a little bit of juice over it) and cilantro or mint. Heaven! Jicama + mango also equals bliss.