Jicama Is Probably the Most Exciting Vegetable & This Is How I Slice it For Salad

The root vegetable in the pic is jicama (hick- eh-mah). I have always wanted to make a salad with it. To me, it tastes like radish, pear, potato all at the same time. There is a nice sweetness and crunch to it which make the vegetable so exciting.

Jicama is actually a legume, and it grows on vines that may reach 20 feet in length. The vines hug the ground, ending in tubers that may grow up to 50 pounds in size, but most jicama roots sent to the grocery store are approximately three to four pounds. Before eating, the coarse brown outer layer of the jicama should be peeled to reveal the exciting milk white inside.

Jicama is a great source of vitamin C and is fat free — making it a superb on-the-go snack. It hails from Mexico and South America and is a cousin to the sweet potato. Jicama is a street food in its native habitat, sold with a squeeze of lime and a shake of chili powder.

I could go on and on but you can google this delectable vegetable. It is sold in most grocery stores and now you can order it online. You will find it off in a corner somewhere with the fennel, chili peppers, kaffir lime leaves and any other vegetable we never hear about. I got mine at Amazon. I wanted to make a salad so I added up some oranges and cucumber as well.

If you ever watch the show ‘Chopped’, this vegetable always seems to make it into the mystery basket and that is where my interest was piqued. My go to cook book for pretty much anything cooking related is ‘La Varenne Pratique’ by Anne Willan. I use it like the Holy Bible of cooking. Whenever I have a question about anything, this is where I dive and here’s how I cut this amazing vegetable-

• Step One. You must remove the outer waxy exterior. I just used a vegetable peeler
• Step Two. Cut the jicama in half length wise so you have two halves
• Step Three. Slice the Jicama about 1/8 of an inch thick
• Step Four. Slice the slices again, about 1/8 of an inch into a julienne. Use a serrated knife, it works best on this veggie

This is how I prepare my Jicama for salad. It’s now ready for the salad bowl. I decided to use all veggies that I could julienne to make it uniform and pretty. I also added orange which I zested, juiced and sectioned into the salad. It was so tasty and beautiful.

Jicama Salad with Orange and Fennel

List of veggies:

Jicama, red pepper, yellow pepper, cucumber, carrot, red onion, fennel. I julienned them all like a slaw.

Dressing:

• 8 T olive oil
• 4 T orange juice (1 juicy orange)
• 4 T balsamic vinegar
• 2 medium cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 t salt
• 1 T honey

There you have it. You can put the Jicama salad on top of fresh greens or arugula. It is a taste treat sensation.