A surprising wonder veggie

I love crudité — it’s healthy and tasty — but, let’s face it, it can get kind of boring. When I’m tired of the same old carrots, broccoli, pepper, and celery combo, I add a new veggie to the mix: jicama.

Pronounced “heekama,” it’s a root vegetable that belongs to the legume family. Jicama is shaped like a turnip and has a unique crisp texture and sweet flavor. It’s loaded with vitamins and minerals such as calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, copper, manganese, and selenium. One cup of jicama packs 40% of your daily vitamin C and almost 25% of your daily fiber requirement. One serving of jicama (1/2 cup of sticks on a veggie platter) has a mere 23 calories, 0 grams of fat, 5 grams carbohydrate, and 3 grams of fiber!

How else can you eat jicama? Add it to any tossed salad for a new flavor, to a wrap for an extra crunch, or to a stir-fry for more texture. It’s delicious served raw or cooked and can take on different flavors, so add jicama to your dishes when you feel like experimenting!

Tanya’s Tip: Serve jicama with our spinach artichoke dip to add a flavorful kick to your crudité platter.

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Thursday June 18, 2009 Candice wrote:

... I first discovered this delicious veggie from a friend who is from the Philippines. She packed it in her lunch bag,and she gave me a piece. I loved it - I was hooked!! Since then, I have added jicama to several dishes and eaten it raw as a snack. I'm glad you mentioned jicama in your column as it is not well-known as other veggies.

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