Trader Joe's Jicama Sticks

This is day nine of our extended new products week. 

I had never heard of jicama generally, nor this Trader Joe's product specifically, until the good folks at the "What's Good at Trader Joe's" blog mentioned it, first in one of their biweekly podcasts, then in this review. It's more "newish" than actually new, as it showed up in TJ's stores in September.

Jicama is a root vegetable closely related to turnips. This fact made me not particularly excited to try it. But as long as it's not closely related to onions, I'll give it a go.

I found two different online sources suggesting that the easiest way to serve them is with a drizzle of either lime or lemon juice, plus a sprinkle of chili powder. So as part of my weekly dinner with Nina, I put some of these sticks out on a plate plain, others prepared as described.

The plain ones struck me as having both the texture and the flavor of a not-very-sweet apple, a description which I have subsequently found to be rather common as a first impression. Not unpleasant, but nothing to crave, either.

Tarted up with lime juice and chili powder, they're a little more interesting--enough that I ate maybe half a dozen. But still nothing I want to add to my regular rotation of veggies.

Finally, on a different night I tried using them as a vehicle for some spicy hummus--specifically, the Hot Chipotle variety of Roots brand hummus. This worked surprisingly well. The cold and wetness and slight sweetness of the jicama nicely offset the chili heat of the hummus. Plus, they have the advantage of being more filling than the tortilla chips I usually use for this purpose, which means that maybe I won't eat as much.


Will I buy it again? 

Probably not. But to find a vegetable that I had never heard of before, try it, and find that not only wasn't it awful but that I was OK with three different ways of eating it--well, that means it was definitely a worthwhile experiment.