Jicama Potato Salad

My mother is slightly nuts. (Hi mom – Love you…)

All I’m going to say, is that when she showed up on my doorstep last night for her three night stay with me, she had brought her own paper towels, kleenex, kleenex hand towels… And get this… toilet paper.

Seriously. Seriously!?

So now, next to my toilet, is her roll and my roll… Insert: Bashing head against wall

Any who, before she arrived yesterday, I decided to whip up a batch of Jicama Potato Salad from Mathew Kinney’s book ‘Everyday Raw’. Now, for the most part, I rarely ever follow a recipe because It’s just not my style – which is, somewhat rebellious. But more than that, I’ve just had a lot of past fails with published recipes. And I’m talking established raw food chef’s recipes. For the record though, Raw Food, Real World and Living Raw Foods rarely ever fail me (just saying…). So, given those past recipe flops I’m often hesitant to bust out the books. However, when it comes to Mathew Kenny (one of the master minds behind the original Raw Food, Real World), I have quite a bit of faith in his recipes.

I won’t give out the exact recipe (I know, lame), but I will break down the ingredients for you.

Jicama Potato Salad (altered a bit)

Jicama, red pepper (actually called for yellow), green olives, red onion, and a bubbies pickle (I added this).

Dressing

Tahini, cumin, lemon, parsley, tamari, salt, chili powder.

Ok, so here’s the deal – Always trust your gut instincts. Going into this recipe, I wasn’t thinking – which, ultimately cost me some time and a few ingredients.

If you own Everyday Raw and ever attempt this recipe, let me give you a few tips – because flavor wise, it’s actually great enough to make again.

- Do not (repeat: do not) go in to this thinking ‘potato salad’. Instead, think ‘jicama slaw’, and with that, I highly recommend shredding the jicama as opposed to cutting it into cubes. The cubes are what for me, ruined the whole damn salad. You’d get a mouth full of yumminess, but then spend the next five minutes chewing the jicama – which meant, all you tasted was jicima. No thank you.

- Shred the jicama. Oh wait, I already said that… See, I’m not messing around. Shred. The. Jicama.

- Do not add water to the dressing. This is where I did go with my gut instinct and thank goodness I did, as it would have been a watery mess! I’m quite confused how a dressing for jicama could/would call for so much water! That to me, seems like a typo. Again, leave out the water.

So, there you have it… My somewhat flop! Tell me what you think of recipe books -

Do you use them? Mostly for inspiration!
Do you own a bunch? I own quite a few, but nothing like some people. In fact, given my love for food, you’d probably be surprised at how few I really do own.
Do you find cooked recipes books to be more reliable than raw? Totally! However, I believe this is because cooked ingredients are a bit more reliable (and/or easier to mess with) – as opposed to raw, which are always different in flavor, water consistency, etc…
Any published recipes you think are off the charts (if so, please share the names )? Flatbread Pizza from Everyday Raw. It was one of the first gourmet raw recipes I made, and it blew me away – it’s very Mediterranean in flavor. Love, love, love!

___________________________________

Well, I’m off to spend the weekend with Mommy Dearest (wire hangers!?!?). If I make it out alive, I’ll see you next week

Tagged as: easy, nut free, quick, Raw, salad, summer, vegan