Mexican Jicama Salad

magpie diner's Note:

I couldn't say if this is authentic Mexican or not, but it's tasty, crisp and fresh. Basic idea came from a web site I was on about mexican cooking. Pull out your mandolin slicer or food processor to make quick work of the chopping.

• Total Time: 30 mins
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 0 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 1 large jicama, peeled
• 2 large beets, trimmed and peeled
• 2 large carrots, peeled and cut into 3-inch lengths
• 1 (284 ml) can mandarin orange segments (believe that's about a 10 oz tin)
• 2 limes
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, finely chopped
• salt
• pepper
• 1/4 cup unsalted peanuts, coarsely chopped

Directions:

1. Julienne the jicama, beets, and carrots. Mix together in a large bowl.
2. Drain the mandarin oranges, reserving liquid. Add the orange segments to the jicama mixture.
3. Remove the zest of 1 lime and set aside. Juice the limes, which should yield about 3 tablespoons Whisk up the lime juice and the zest with 1/4 cup of the mandarin orange liquid. While whisking, drizzle in the oil to make smooth vinaigrette. You could get away with a little less oil here if that's a concern. Check the flavour of the vinaigrette; if it's too sour for your tastes, add a little honey or agave nectar to take the lime edge off.
4. Pour the vinaigrette over jicama mixture. Add in the cilantro and toss to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
5. Transfer the salad to a platter or serving bowl and sprinkle with the peanuts.

Reviews

[Cookgirl]

The jicama here is never good quality and for most recipes I substitute parsnips which is what I did here, too. Not as crunchy but at the least the quality of the dish is better. I also substituted some golden beets and the red beets were grated separately so they wouldn't bleed onto the other ingredients. Fresh 'cara cara' oranges replaced canned mandarins because I wanted to stay all fresh with this salad. Sunflower seeds for peanuts since someone in this household used the latter to make peanut butter. Reviewed for Veg Tag January.

[Darkhunter]

Liked this recipe very much. I would never have thought about having jicama and beets together! And then you compound the deed by giving it a fruit based dressing! Did, however, omit the peanuts. Will likely have this again, as we do love jicama and beets. Made for ZWT5