Selection and storage

Jicamas can be available year around in the markets. Generally, they imported from central American countries through land route and flood the USA markets during spring and summer.

Choose well-formed, firm, round, medium sized tubers. Avoid soft, shriveled, or tubers with surface cuts, cracks, and bruise skin.

Once at home, jicamas can be stored much like potatoes. They have good shelf life and keep well in a cool, dry, dark place for about 2-4 weeks. Exposure to a temperature below 10 °C results in chill-induced changes in color and texture. Also, prolong storage converts its starch into sugar, which makes the roots less sought after in savory dishes.

Cut sections, cubes or slices, however, should be placed inside the refrigerator.

Preparation and serving methods

Wash in cool running water and dry mop just like in other tubers. Peel off the thick fibrous skin using a vegetable peeler or paring knife. Peel and other plant parts contain rotenone, an organic poison; and therefore, should be discarded. It then can be cut into cubes, sliced, or chopped into fine strips in a ways desired.

Fresh jicama is used much like a vegetable and is an important starch source in much of Central America. It stays crisp when cooked, making it one of the wonderful vegetable in stir-fries.

Here are some serving tips:

Jicama salad.

Photo courtesy: Rex roof

Raw jicama has sweet, succulent apple like fruity taste. In many parts of Mexico, fresh tubers are cut into cubes/sticks and sprinkled with lime juice, salt and dressed with olive oil and paprika or ground chili pepper and enjoyed!

Jicama is a favorite root vegetable in Mexican cooking where it is used in salads, slaw, stews, stir-fries, soups…etc. It mixes well with other common vegetables and fruits like orange, pineapple, carrot, green beans as well as with poultry, meat, and seafood.

Outside of the American continent, this tuber is among the popular starch root in many south and the southeast region. In Malaysia, where it is known as bengkoang , fresh young tubers are sliced and eaten with other fruits like pineapple, apple, raw mango, sweet potato…etc, in rujak .

In Indonesia, they served with much like Malayan salad but with added rujak sauce made from palm sugar, tamarind, shrimp paste, chili peppers, and sautéed peanut paste. Also, as a rujak tumbuk , wherein all the ingredients mentioned above ground in a wooden mortar and served on a banana leaf.

Apart from salads, another popular oriental dish that uses jicama and turnips is popiah, a Fujian/Chaozhou-style fresh spring roll.

Safety profile

Jicama plant contains significant levels of fat-soluble organic toxin, rotenone. This toxin is concentrated especially in the leaf tops, stems and seed pods but at much lower concentrations in the roots. Several studies found that it linked to the development of Parkinson's disease. However, peeled roots are safe for human consumption, including in children. Rotenone works at cellular level inhibiting several metabolic enzymes like NADH dehydrogenase in the mitochondria. Outside, it used as environmentally safe broad-spectrum insecticide, piscicide (to poison fish), and pesticide. (Medical disclaimer).

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