Jicama feels like a hiccup however tastes like heaven. This Spanish vegetable has a crisp however contemporary taste, and when you haven’t tried it but, you’re lacking out!

Desk of Contents

1. What sort of vegetable is it?
2. Are there differing kinds?
3. What does it appear like?
4. Usually, the place is it grown?
5. How is it harvested?
6. When is the season?
7. What does it style like?
8. Are you able to eat the pores and skin?
9. What to search for on the market
10. How do you retailer it at dwelling?
11. Methods to make use of Jicama
12. The well being advantages
13. Is it a superfood?
14. Really useful serving dimension
15. Dietary profile

Jicama is referred to by a number of names and phrases. The most typical are “Mexican turnip,” “Mexican potato,” “Water chestnut,” and “Yam bean.” The extra scientific names are Pachyrhizuz erosus, Singkamas, Pachyrhizus tuberosus. It’s a part of the Fabaceae or bean household. They’re cousins to inexperienced beans, peas, black beans, and chickpeas. Jicama is a legume and an edible root vegetable native to Mexico [1].

You could find jicama in most Mexican cuisines. Cooks use it as a result of they add freshness to a recipe, with out the undesirable energy. When sauteed and cooked, they add a crisp texture to dishes. In Central America, most individuals eat it uncooked. They season with lemon or lime juice to boost the acidity and add chili powder to spice up the spice [3, 5].

What sort of vegetable is it?

Jicama is a legume regardless that it could not appear like a bean. It’s cultivated by its tuber roots. These roots provide fiber, nutritional vitamins, carbohydrates, and minerals into one’s weight-reduction plan. They resemble a potato, extra so than a bean [2].

Are there differing kinds?

There are two kinds of jicama. The most typical one known as jicama de agua and is extensively out there at markets inside North America. In distinction, jicama de leche is much less widespread to seek out and eat.

The primary distinction between the 2 is that jicama de agua is spherical and squat with translucent watery colour, therefore aqua, Spanish for water. Leche in Spanish means milk, and jicama de leche is extra tapered in form with a milky juice coloring [1].

What does it appear like?

The vegetable itself is brown on the skin with a white inside. The plant can develop as much as 20 ft in size, sprouting leaves and seed pods. The roots develop underground and are the one edible portion. The flowers on the plant are blue and white. The legumes or seed pods produce fruit and are eliminated for the tubers to develop. The tube itself is irregularly globular.

Usually, the place is it grown?

Since jicama can solely develop in hotter climates, South America, Mexico, Hawaii, Puerto Rico are usually the place they are often planted. It originated from the Aztecs and Mayans and is a Spanish vegetable native to Mexico and Central America [2].

How is it harvested?

Jicama is grown as a perennial vine and is annual because of the plant being killed throughout harvest. It’s planted into the soil and begins to develop like a pole bean. The vining happens the place white and blue flowers bloom, however the root itself is slow-growing and may take as much as 6 months.

When the vine dies again some, that’s when you already know it’s time to reap. Farmers fastidiously comply with the vine again right down to the tuber within the soil, and use a shovel or fork to raise the jicama out, then lower the vine off [1].

When is the season?

Because of the want of heat temperatures, summer time is the very best time for jicama to develop. It requires lots of solar as a result of it’s thought of a tropical plant. The rising season is an extended interval and must be undisturbed the whole thing of its time.

What does it style like?

When consuming jicama, most individuals examine it to an apple, akin to a Honey crisp or purple scrumptious. It’s crisp and juicy. But additionally, it’s considerably watery and resembles a water chestnut on the similar time. It’s candy and starchy and has a clean feeling to the mouth.

Are you able to eat the pores and skin?

Sadly, not like different vegatables and fruits, the place the pores and skin incorporates vitamins and is edible, the pores and skin of the jicama is definitely poisonous. The seeds and stems which can be uncovered include a pure isoflavone compound known as rotenone. That is an insecticide that protects the plant from predators. Nonetheless, rotenone is poisonous to people, fish, and naturally, bugs.

This insecticide crosses the blood-brain barrier and cell membranes, which might then kind free radicals and harm DNA, fatty acids, and different parts of the mitochondria. The seed pods might be consumed, however solely when they’re younger. The mature ones develop the rotenone and grow to be poisonous [4]. So, actually, solely eat the fleshy root portion.

What to search for on the market

Identical to most vegatables and fruits, you search for a agency and unbruised exterior. The jicama ought to be dry, and the pores and skin mustn’t seem shriveled, bruised, or blemished. It shouldn’t be discolored or molded.

Choose jicama which can be both 4 kilos or below, they supply higher high quality, whereas bigger ones might appear to be you’re getting extra, however in actuality, they’re extra fibrous and starchier and never as crisp or candy [3, 5].

How do you retailer it at dwelling?

Hold unpeeled jicama in a plastic bag within the fridge. This ensures their lifetime of about 2 to three weeks. For those who lower the jicama, wrap it in plastic wrap and retailer it within the fridge in a drawer to final for a couple of week.

Watch out to not retailer at too low of temperatures, or else you danger chilling damage that causes decay, discoloration, and lack of texture. The vegetable wants to stay dry always.

Methods to make use of Jicama

• Lower into cubes, toss with avocado, chopped fennel, and add purple onion for a salad. Accompany with olive oil, lime juice, and cilantro so as to add some freshness.
• Create a fruit salad by including apples, pineapple, pear, and different fruits you favor—slice or cube it so as to add one other crunchy and contemporary component.
• Use it to interchange cabbage in a coleslaw by shredding it.
• Pickle and ferment it with candy bell peppers, sliced onion, vinegar, and spices.
• Diced jicama, candy peppers, sizzling pepper flakes, and pickling spices mixed create a pleasant spicy jicama relish.

The well being advantages

Jicama is extraordinarily wealthy in vitamin C and vitamin A. It additionally incorporates folate, iron, potassium, and magnesium. The roots have omega-3 and d-6 fatty acids as effectively [1, 3]. Oligofructose inulin is a prebiotic fiber present in jicama, and this helps to stimulate the expansion of “good” micro organism in your intestine. The inulin has additionally been proven to assist take in extra calcium in meals we eat, which helps our bone well being.

Jicama can also be extraordinarily fiber ahead and is low in energy. The excessive fiber content material is nice for the digestive system by normalizing bowel operate and stopping constipation. Nonetheless, consuming an excessive amount of fiber can take in different very important minerals akin to calcium, iron, zinc, and magnesium [1, 6].

Is it a superfood?

Jicama is the brand new superfood and is changing chia seeds. It incorporates 3 instances the quantity of fiber present in oatmeal and has the prebiotic fiber oligofructose inulin. It’s 40% of the energy and carbs of a potato with only one/10^th of the glycemic load, whereas additionally containing 43% of vitamin C [5, 6].

A really helpful 1 cup or 130 grams of uncooked jicama will provide 6.4 g of dietary fiber for an individual. Jicama is wholesome, however an excessive amount of of it will possibly trigger lack of different vitamins and minerals because of the quantity of fiber contained in it. The fiber absorbs the opposite vitamins and minerals your physique is retaining and receiving [7].

Really useful serving dimension

If you’re on a 2,000 calorie per day weight-reduction plan, one cup of contemporary jicama could be the very best. Actually, any greater than 1 cup is overboard in your physique and an excessive amount of fiber because it’s already 24% of your each day worth [4].

Dietary profile

• 49 energy per cup
• 11.5 grams of carbohydrates
• 6.37 grams of fiber
• 2.34 grams of sugar
• 0.936 grams of protein

The best vitamin content material in jicama is vitamin C, with 26.3mg per cup, and vitamin A coming behind with 0.0013mg, no important hint of Vitamin E, 0.55 mg of Vitamin B6, and 0.0039mg of Vitamin Ok.

The minerals present in jicama are magnesium, potassium, and folate. Respectively, 0.078mg, 195mg, and 0.156mg are in a single cup [8, 9].