Saturday 6 August 2011

Yakking about Yacon

I've grown yacon for a two years now, but I realise I've never posted about it  -thanks Dixiebelle for the reminder . What is it? I hear you ask - it's a crunchy tuber vegetable, aka Peruvian Ground Apple . I've grown it successfully here in the least frosty part of the garden near the water tank - always planting out after the last frost has passed.

This year I planted four plants, and I have a generous basked full of tubers. Raw they have a lovely crunchy apple/cucumber like mild flavour (peel the skin and the white part) - great for a salad.
Last night I made a pork stir-fry and cut up some chunks of yacon  (the pale/translucent chunks in the right photo) to include with the courgette, basil and mushroom. I must say it was pretty good - it retained a crunch (a bit like water chestnuts), but also soaked up the flavours of the sauce (a mix of mirin, tamari and fish sauce). Served with rice it was a dinner winner!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oooh I'll have to look into that, looks like a lovely vege. How're the rest of the crops going with the end of winter frosts?

africanaussie said...

I have just planted yakon this year, and looking forward to tasting it. It sounds like my kind of plant.

Margo said...

@Vivienne - alas the end of frosts are some time away - our last frost date is normally in November! Not much in the ground at the moment due to my long absence, but the few cabbages and collards that are over-wintering put on a spurt in last week's warmer weather. Back to 6 and rain this week!

@Africanaussie - let us know how you get on with them - I found them very easy to grow

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