Welcome to Toss My Salad, a series in which I’ll talk about ways to perk up boring salads. I often got complimented on my salads (which is an awkward compliment) when I packed my lunch for work, so I know a thing or two about sexy salads.
Today’s sexy salad ingredient is jicama (pronounced HICK-ima). I was recently introduced to jicama by my roommate, and I’m glad I was. This is a great crudite. (Obviously, I love that word and wanted an excuse to say it.) At the grocery store, it resembles a smooth, large, round potato. Actually, even peeled, it looks like a potato. But it has a sweet, soft-crunchy taste…sort of like an apple or water chestnut. To add to a salad, simply peel and slice into chunks.
The jicama is known as the Mexican turnip, so it’s often great paired with Mexican flavors. I like it in a salad with taco meat, red pepper, green pepper, lime juice, black beans, and salsa. The sweetness nicely balances out spicy flavors. A half-cup has just 25 calories and a nice dose of Vitamin C.
For a cool treat this summer, check out this recipe for a jicama-apple salad.
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Thank you or reminding me of jicama. When we used to go to Sweet Tomatoes restaurant in Georgia, I loooooved it in my salad. I’ve missed jicama. I’ve gotta get reacquainted with him. Her. It.
.-= Melissa (It’s a Veggieful Life)´s last blog ..I Like Meat. There, I’ve Said It! =-.