Jicama Salad
By Esther Boateng
Do you relish the idea of a simple salad for lunch? If so, reach for your chopping board, grab your sharpest knife, and get to work on a jicama, a cucumber, a small hatch pepper, and some red onion. Never tried jicama before? No worries, it’s like a potato and pear gave birth to a love child; crunchy, with a subtle sweetness, and pairs well with cucumber chunks and mild-tasting hatch peppers, lightly tossed in a simple oil-based dressing.
You can buy this juicy root vegetable from your local grocery as a whole vegetable, or pre-cut in chunks, I prefer to buy a whole jicama, and cut it into chunks myself; it tastes better, and it tends to last longer. One of the great things about jicama is that it will retain its crunch for at least a couple of days when stored in the fridge, even if soaked in a light dressing.
Prepare this salad in advance and keep it in the fridge, or make it fresh from scratch, as and when you need it. I prefer to keep a batch to add to meals or use as a topping to garnish avocados, or loaded onto a baked potato with cottage cheese, cream cheese, or sour cream.
