Beet & Jicama Salad

I’ve been having so much fun trying lots of new foods. I also like to read about them and see what they look like while they’re growing, too.

My new kitchen has about one square foot of counter space, so I usually set up shop on the dining room table.

Now beets, I know, but only in one way: pickled, jarred, and sweet. And just like these raw ones did, staining everything red.

Jicama is something I found by accident by eating some and loving it. There’s a Mexican restaurant here that garnishes guacamole with radishes and jicama, and I love it and asked what it was. Like they say, there’s no stupid question, and I’m glad to have found this tasty treat. I also read about eating it raw in this article from Care2 and saved half of the jicama to eat by itself.

I read several recipes that combined raw beets and jicama in a salad and came up with a pretty good dish. I can see now why many suggest shredding the beets, as they were pretty hard to eat raw in the little chips I cut them into. I used half the jicama and two beets.

I chipped veggies dressed was made with lime juice, orange juice, cumin, coriander, and cilantro.

The jicama chips are actually white, but the beets tinted them red. It has a crunchy texture similar to a really firm apple, and it’s slightly sweet and really watery and refreshing. Peeling and cutting them was a lot of work, but it’s kept for several days in the fridge and I’m still enjoying both the jicama chips and the salad.

I think I’ve found two good ways to eat jicama, but I’m going to have to cook my beets going forward.