According to Wikipedia, the word, jicama (hee-kah-mah) comes from the Nahuatl xicamatl(hee-kah-mahtl) and is also called the Mexican Potato or Mexican Turnip. Personally, I've never heard it called anything except jicama.
I don't remember the first time I ate the pale tuber, maybe as crudités along with some raw brocolli and bell peppers? I'm pretty sure that Ranch dressing was involved. The common element to my prior to Merida exposure has always been that the jicama has been peeled and eaten raw. While I still peel it I have found some other ways to serve it. Especially now that Ranch dressing is on our forbidden foods list.
One of the more common ways that we have had it served to us has been as a botana sprinkled with chili and lime. In addition to snacking on jicama sticks sprinkled with Tajin (a chile and lime condiment) at home, I've sprinkled it with a mix of curry powder, cayenne pepper and salt for an East Indian flavor.
The other day we had a jicama citrus salad. I looked at several versions, they all combined various citrus fruit slices with jicama slices the dressing being orange and lime juice combined with cayenne pepper and salt to taste. Ours was simply peeled orange slices,jicama slices some chopped cilantro, the juice of an orange and a lime sprinkled with Tajin. I saw other versions that included mandarins and grapefruit.
One thing, that I have found out is that you can also use jicama as a subsititute for water chestnuts in Chinese food or Spinach Dip. It will also work as a substitute for Jerusalem arthichokes, which I have never seen here. I have also pickled jicama along with carrots and used it in escabeche with jalapeños.
If you follow the link you'll find a few recipes for jicama including one for a stir fry.
I had always heard that jicama is low in calorie, according to the Kitchen Dictionary at the RecipeZaar there are only 49 calories in a cup of the cubed root and a whooping 6.4 grams of fiber. The low calorie count makes sense, since I also learned that it's composed of 86-90% water.If you want to check out the rest of the nutritional information you can find it here.
I have always stored jicama at room temperature, though I think it would do just fine in the vegetable drawer of the refrigerator. One of the jicamas that I bought got forgotten and sprouted, I planted it in our backyard. Jicama has the most amazing looking leaves and the vine is reputed to grow up to 4 meters tall! I'm looking forward to seeing what the flowers look like. My understanding is that all the plant is poisonous except the tubers which can grow to be several pounds in size.
Theresa is the author of ¿What do I do all day? and Theresa's Cooking Blog. Her weekly column, Comida Listo, can be found on Yolisto each Tuesday.
