Jicama / Yam Bean／Pachyrhizus erosus, /15 FRESH SEEDS in LANSDOWNE, New South Wales for sale

15 seeds , Free postage
Jicama ⁄ Yam Bean
Jicama is a round, fleshy taproot vegetable of bean family plant. The Jicama vine can reach a height of 4–5 meters given suitable support. Its root can attain lengths of up to 2 m. Its underground starchy root is one of the popular edible root vegetable grown in many parts of Central American, South Asian, Caribbean, and some Andean South American regions. Its refreshing, crispy, ice-white fruit-like pulp is eaten raw or cooked in a variety of sweet and savory dishes worldwide.
Some of the common names of this tuber are yam bean, Mexican water chestnut, Mexican turnip, sengkwang, yacon…etc. It is pronounced as hecama.
CULINARY USES
Jicama is a favorite root vegetable in Mexican cooking where it is used in salads, slaw, stews, stir-fries, soups…etc with other common vegetables and fruits like orange, pineapple, carrot, green beans as well as with poultry, meat and seafood.
Outside of the American continent, this tuber is among the popular starch root in many south and southeast region. In Malaysia, where it is known as bengkoang, fresh young tubers are sliced and eaten with other fruits like pineapple, apple, raw mango, sweet potato…etc in rujak.
In Indonesia, they are served with much like Malayan salad but with added rujak sauce made from palm sugar, tamarind, shrimp paste, chili peppers, and sautéed peanut paste. Also, as a rujak tumbuk, wherein all the above-mentioned ingredients ground in a wooden mortar and served in a banana leaf.
Apart from salads, another popular oriental dish that uses jicama and turnips is popiah, a Fujian ⁄ Chaozhou-style fresh spring roll.
HEALTH BENEFITS OF JICAMA
Jicama is very low calorie root vegetables; contains only 35 calories per 100 g. However, its high quality phyto-nutrition profile comprises of dietary fiber, and anti-oxidants, in addition to small proportions of minerals, and vitamins. Great for dieters. Eat this Mexican Potato instead of Potato and save at least half the calories.
It is one of the finest source dietary fiber and excellent source of oligofructose inulin, a soluble dietary fiber. The root pulp provides 4.9 mg or 13% of 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.
As in turnips, fresh yam bean tubers are rich in vitamin C; provide about 20.2 mg or 34% of DRA of vitamin C per 100 g. Vitamin-C is a powerful water-soluble anti-oxidant that helps body scavenge harmful free radicals, thereby offers protection from cancers, inflammation and viral cough and cold.
It also contains small levels of some of valuable B-complex group of vitamins such as folates, riboflavin, pyridoxine, pantothenic acid and thiamin.
Further, it provides healthy amounts of some important minerals like magnesium, copper, iron and manganese.