Yummy Yacon Root

By William Woys Weaver
Published on June 1, 2006
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Salpicón, a fruit salad from South America that brings out the sweet flavor of yacon root.
Salpicón, a fruit salad from South America that brings out the sweet flavor of yacon root.
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Over the course of the growing season, a yacon bush will reach 6 to 8 feet in height with giant showy leaves and small yellow flowers, making it a nice ornamental backdrop plant.
Over the course of the growing season, a yacon bush will reach 6 to 8 feet in height with giant showy leaves and small yellow flowers, making it a nice ornamental backdrop plant.
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Each yacon plant can yield as much as 10 to 14 pounds of tubers.
Each yacon plant can yield as much as 10 to 14 pounds of tubers.
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To save yacon from season to season, store the crown (shown here with tubers attached) in wood chips or peat moss until early spring. Then plant each sprouting “eye” in its own pot.
To save yacon from season to season, store the crown (shown here with tubers attached) in wood chips or peat moss until early spring. Then plant each sprouting “eye” in its own pot.

Easy to grow and store, high-yielding, supernutritious and crunchy like an apple, yacon root (pronounced ya-kon) is one of the many “new” vegetables coming to us from South America. In reality, this fruitlike vegetable has been cultivated throughout the Andes for more than a millennium. South Americans eat it as a fruit; they also use the huge leaves to wrap foods during cooking, in the same way cabbage leaves are used in Germany, grape leaves in the Mideast and banana leaves in the tropics. Only recently — thanks to some adventurous green thumbs — have North Americans begun to see yacon in produce markets.

In addition to its distinctive flavor — a satisfyingly sweet cross between celery and Granny Smith apples — yacon is noted for its high fiber and low calorie content. The tubers and leaves contain high levels of inulin, a form of sugar humans cannot easily break down, making it low in calories. Inulin also aids digestion and promotes the growth of beneficial bacteria in the intestine, while inhibiting toxic bacteria. Recent research also has found that yacon tubers and leaves are a good source of antioxidants. Yacon is an ideal food for diabetics and weight watchers, but it will make a delicious addition to anyone’s diet. Plus, the tubers only get sweeter in storage.

In South America, yacon tubers can have yellow, orange, red, pink and even purple flesh, all with distinct flavors. Unfortunately, only one or two varieties of yacon are available in the United States, and they are white-flesh varieties. All varieties have a crunchy texture, and the water content is high enough that the tubers can be crushed to make juice.

Yacon is delicious eaten fresh with a little sugar or honey and a bit of lemon juice sprinkled over it. (Yacon recipes often contain citrus, because acidity prevents the discoloration that results once the pared tubers are exposed to air.) Many South Americans put yacon in a fruit salad called salpicón, because the tubers add a crunchy texture to the mix. Yacon also can be stir-fried, roasted, baked or made into pies and healthy chips. Teas made from the leaves can reduce blood sugar by increasing the amount of insulin circulating in the blood stream. Yacon syrups or powders also can be used as low-calorie sweeteners, and are increasingly available at natural food stores.

Yacon (Smallanthus sonchifolius) is a member of the sunflower family, so it has small yellow flowers, and — like its cousins, dahlias and Jerusalem artichokes — it develops huge tubers. The name yacon is a Spanish derivation of the Quechuan word llaqon, which means “watery” or “water root,” referring to the juiciness of the tubers. Quechua is the original language of the Incas, who spread the cultivation of yacon along the west coast of South America. Legend has it that traveling Inca messengers relied on the tubers to quench their thirst on long journeys.

Because it isn’t a high-energy food, the Spanish Conquistadors ignored yacon. It remained more or less a food of native South Americans until the 1930s. At that time, Italian botanists began breeding new vegetables with yacon because it can be grafted to dahlias, sunflowers and Jerusalem artichokes. Those experiments stopped during World War II, but scientists have begun to re-examine the old research, and are becoming aware of yacon’s many benefits.

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