Mexican Chopped Salad with Jicama

Blogging Marathon# 61: Week 3/ Day 2 Theme: Dishes using Root Vegetables Dish: Mexican Chopped Salad with Jicama Jicama has recently become one of my favorite vegetable. It is crispy, slightly sweet and very refreshing. It is a root vegetable and falls under the taproot category. Rutabaga, parsnip, daikon are few other veggies that fall under this category.
I wanted to take a picture of jicama and asked my son to pose. Then my daughter wanted to hold it too for the photos. But in the end I couldn't pick just one, so I'm posting both their pics.

I love jicama in salads and here's another salad that I already made with it along with avocado. Today's salad is from 'Vegan Eats World' cookbook by Terry Hope Romero. It has a very interesting dressing with toasted and ground pumpkin seeds along with agave, lime juice and spices. It is thick, gritty and very yummy.


If you can't find jicama, then I think apple or pear can be used instead, but the taste will be quite different.

Mexican Chopped Salad Ingredients:

• 1 Medium Jicama, peeled and diced
• 2 Medium Tomatoes, seeds removed and diced
• 1 Small Red Onion, diced
• 2 Jalapeno or Serrano Chilies
• 1cup Cilantro Leaves, chopped
• 3tbsp Pumpkin seeds, roasted
• ¼cup Lime juice
• 1~2tsp Agave Nectar
• 1tsp Dried Oregano
• ½tsp Ground Cumin
• To taste Salt

Method:

1. On a dry skillet, roast jalapeno or serrano chili until the skin is blistered and is tender. Place them in a bowl and cover with a plate or plastic wrap. Remove the skin and seeds, chop and keep ready.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine jicama, tomatoes, onion, roasted chilies and cilantro.
3. Pulse the roasted pumpkin seeds in a coffee grinder into a gritty powder. Then in a bowl whisk the pumpkin seed powder with lemon juice, agave, dried oregano, ground cumin and salt.
4. Pour the dressing over the vegetables and toss well. Serve the salad immediately.

Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked today for BM# 61.