Jicama
 

Jicama is the new food I've been having fun with lately. :)It's a root
vegetable, and is sometimes referred to as the "mexican potato."

It has the texture of an an apple and is slightly sweet (some more
than others). It has a nice flavor to it.

I just peel off the skin and remove any bruised areas, then slice up
the crispy white flesh and eat it.

You can cook/steam it but it stays crispy even if you do. :)

It's good for fruit salads, stir fries (replaces water chestnuts) and
is also good just to squeeze some lemon or lime juice on and a dash of
chili powder.

I made a fruit salad the other day and I thought it turned out good so
I'm going to share the recipe:

2 cans mandarin orange slices (drained)
2 mangoes (cut into pieces)
3-5 kiwi (peeled and sliced)
1 can crushed pineapple
1 bunch red seedless grapes (cut each grape in half so the juices can
mix, and use as many grapes as you think look about right)
1 jicama, cubed
1 lime (juice and zest)

After you mix all this together in a large bowl, let it sit in the
refrigerator for a while (a few hours, or overnight) to chill and so
the flavors mix. You can drain off the extra juice at the bottom for a
delicious drink. I was thinking the juice could probably be combined
with other stuff to make a sort of fruity "dressing" but I haven't
developed a recipe for that yet. Maybe whisking it into some cool whip
would be tasty (I don't know if there's a vegan version of cool whip).

My family said this recipe tasted good so I thought I'd share it.

One reason its important to let the salad chill for a while is that
the jicama will absorb the fruity flavors around it and taste a lot
better than it would otherwise. The jicama adds a nice crunch to the
recipe.

-Rubystars