“They taste like apples but they look like french fries” my son said about jicama, a white root vegetable that looks like a turnip. Jicama tastes like a combination of an apple and a cucumber with an unusual sweet taste and a watery crunch. There is a slight bitter aftertaste but it’s very subtle. Peeled with a sharp knife, cut like french fries and stacked up high, they make a fun addition to any dinner. The trick is to present jicama in a fun way. My husband said with a smile “You should make it a tradition to serve jicama when I am away.” He was, I guess, feeling less adventurous than my kids.
The truth is, most fruits and vegetables need a PR campaign to compete with the processed food that is marketed to kids. So making an effort to present fruits and vegetables in a fun way can really make a difference between kids eating their vegetables or not. My kids love fruit plates and vegetable plates and stackers–but if you put a carrot stick on their plate and demand they eat it they will often say “no.” So at our house I just ask them to eat some vegetables rather than this or that particular thing.
I like to peel jicama like you would an apple. Then, cut the jiicama into 1/4 inch rounds. Next cut each round into 1/2 inch sticks. Put two sticks parallel on a plate and then put two more jicama sticks perpendicular on top. Repeat layers until you have a jicama stacker. See my link below for Apple Stackers. Kids also like to help stack! Even if they won’t try the jicama–they might like to build the stackers.
Related links:
Apple Stackers
Snack Trays
Dren Redfox - I had never tried Jicama before… think I might grab some from the produce market this evening though. I appreciate the fact that my boy is so open to new things!