. . . which my mother-in-law pronounced Jamaica. No, I'm not kidding.
Anyway, it's the new you-should-try-it vegetable being pushed upon me at WW meetings. Because, by itself, it's zero points.
Of course it's zero points. It's also zero taste, as you would know if you had ever eaten jicama.
I'm not anti-jicama. Heavens no. Go ahead. Peel it, cut it in strips, and throw it in a salad. It's a nice filler. And somebody's bound to ask about it, as in, "Did you put raw potato in here?" Or "What's this white stuff with no taste?"
So today the WW class leader told of an ambitious WW person who peeled her jicama, poked it with a fork, spread some olive oil and Italian seasoning on it, and baked it at 350 for about an hour and a half. Sound familiar?
When done, it probably smelled all Italiany and maybe pretty good. She cut it open and plopped some fat free sour cream on it.
Of course, the olive oil was 1 point, as was the ff sour cream. So that's a 2-point jicama.
I'm thinking about the prep time and the 1 1/2 hour wait.
Anyway, today we were challenged to try a new vegetable, and jicama was mentioned by name. Again. So I went ahead and bought a jicama--85 cents.
When I get around to it, I will probably do some kind of variation on the baked one which was raved about. Like I believe that. I said probably, but I'm pretty sure to do it. I mean, I've got the thing now, and I don't see me eating it like an apple.
The report today was that baked the jicama had "surprisingly great taste." I'd better choose my seasoning carefully.
Why am I doing it? Yes, I ask myself the same question. A real potato, by the way, a small one, prepared the same way--except I wouldn't have to peel it--would be 4 points.
One difference: we're talking small potato, and the smallest jicama I could find was really big. And I guess even a big jicama by itself is zero points. Stands to reason.
So, I'm thinking, in theory, you could make a meal of one big jicama. If you wanted to. If you ate potatoes often and figured this would be a very smart switch, which I don't.
Makes me remember the South Beach Diet's try-this-instead-of-mashed-potatoes thing. You won't be able to tell it isn't potatoes.
It was mashed cauliflower. Guess what it tasted like.
Oh well. I'll let you know about the jicama.
2 comments:
Don't. Just don't bake it. That's just....weird. I have at least 4 recipes that use jicama that sound WAY better.
I think this one would have 2 or less WW points per serving(but I don't know anything about those crazy points):
1 large jicama
2 navel oranges
2 T lime juice
1/2 t chili powder
salt
1 T minced fresh cilantro
Peel and cut up the jicama. Slice the peel and pith off the oranges then slice it crosswise into 1/4 inch-thick circles. Arrange the jicama and orange pieces on a platter. Sprinkle with lime juice, then salt and chili powder. Sprinkle with cilantro to taste. Serve immediately.
How many points is that?
Looks like zero points to me. Unless I ate the whole thing by myself, which I wouldn't.
Here's the deal. I will try this. I'll cut my jicama in half. It's big, remember. And I live alone, remember.
One half I'll prepare as you describe; the other half I'll bake. Not on the same day.
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