Baked Lime, Cilantro and Chili Infused Jicama Fries + Health Benefits of Jicama

If you haven’t tried Jicama before, now is your chance! It is a root vegetable native to Mexico and Central America. It is related to the sweet potato, but resembles the water chestnut in colour, texture, and flavour. Some ways to use jicama include shredding them into salads, marinating them and eating them raw for a snack, or adding them to baked dishes.

A some fun facts about Jicama:

• Great source of vitamin C and potassium
• Prebiotic fibre to support healthy digestion and gut microbiome diversity
• Only 27 calories per cup which makes this vegetable an excellent choice for low calorie high volume snacks, salads, or baked dishes
• Excellent source of oligofructos inulin, a soluble dietary fiber. Inulin is a zero calorie, sweet inert carbohydrate and does not metabolize in the human body, which make the root an ideal sweet snack for diabetics and dieters

These are a fun and healthy alternative to french fries and other high calorie snack foods. The texture is really crunchy, even when baked, so don’t expect them to taste the same as a regular fry! You can actually just marinate them in the recipe ingredients and eat them raw.

Lime, Cilantro and Chili Infused Jicama Fries

1 small jicama
1 Tbsp lime juice
1 Tbsp coconut oil
½ tsp chili powder
½ tsp dried cilantro
¼ tsp fine sea salt

How to make:
Preheat oven to 375F.
Add coconut oil to a medium mixing bowl and put it in the oven to melt the coconut oil. It only takes about a minute, so don’t forget the bowl in there!!

Add lime juice, chili powder, dried cilantro and sea salt to coconut oil and mix.

Peel jicama and cut into sticks that are about the size of a smaller french fry. Mix jicama in the coconut oil and spread onto a baking sheet lined with unbleached parchment paper. If you have a cookie rack, lay the jicama on there. If not, you will have to flip them half way through the baking time.

Bake for 30 minutes. (flip once at 15 minutes if not using a cookie rack)

Makes 3-4 side dishes or snacks.