Corn and Jicama Salad

The first summer that we lived in our house, I bought a jicama a few times. We baked jicama “fries”, grilled the jicama, but never thought to eat it raw. It turns out that we were way off the mark! Eating jicama raw is the way to go!

It is a shame that it doesn’t get served more often. For those of you who are not familiar with it, jicama is a root vegetable, well actually it is a legume, that is usually softball size or larger. The skin and flesh are about the same color as the skin and flesh of a potato and the flavor and texture bring to mind a cross between an apple and a potato. Jicamas are fairly hard to peel, kind of like peeling rutabagas, but don’t let that stop you. It is well worth the effort!

After making dramatic changes to the recipe I intended to follow, Chris and I decided that we were extremely happy with this creation. I used mine as a burrito filling, while Chris preferred to eat his with tortilla chips as a salsa. Yum!

 

Inspired by Cooking Light and PreventionRD.

Ingredients:

• 1  cup  corn kernels (I used frozen)
• 1  cup  finely diced peeled jicama
• 1  cup  canned black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 avocado, diced
• 1 clove elephant garlic, minced
• 4  tablespoons  chopped fresh cilantro
• 3  tablespoon  fresh lime juice
• 1  teaspoon  ground cumin
• salt to taste

Directions:

• Chop ingredients, toss together, and refrigerate to chill.

Servings ~ 8
Calories ~ 100, Fat ~ 4 g, Carbohydrates ~ 15 g, Protein ~ 3 g