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Recipe: Yuca Fries

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This week, I’ve got a delicious recipe for those of you that are starting to get sick of your go-to safe starch – sweet potatoes. If you’re looking to try some different starches, give these yuca fries a shot! Pair them with a nice burger or steak and you’ve got a quick and easy meal ready to go. We’ll be exploring other safe starches in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.

YUCA FRIES
*Serves 4

Ingredients:

  • 2 medium yuca roots (about 6-8 inches long each)
  • Duck fat, lard or tallow (if you don’t have these, you can use olive oil – but they won’t be as good!)
  • Sea salt & pepper

Directions:

  1. Bring about 3 quarts of water to a boil.
  2. Peel yuca using sharp knife.
  3. Cut into the shape of fries, about 2.5 – 3 inches long and 1/2″ thick.  (Don’t cut them thinner than this, or they’ll get too tough/crispy when you roast them.)
  4. Boil the fries for 12 minutes. You want them to be soft, but not falling apart.  Meanwhile, pre-heat the oven to 400 F.
  5. Put 3-4 TBS of duck fat (or whatever fat you’re using) into a small saucepan and heat until liquid.
  6. Drain fries and put them in a mixing bowl.  Pour fat over fries and mix around to distribute evenly.
  7. Spread fries on a baking sheet, and season generously with sea salt and pepper.  Paprika or chili powder are a nice touch here as well.
  8. Roast for about 15 minutes.
  9. Remove from oven and flip the fries.
  10. Roast for another 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown.

Note: each yuca root has a tough, stringy bit in the center of the root.  This will turn up in some of the fries – so watch out for it.  I used to boil the yuca in halves and remove this stringy part before cutting into fry shapes, but found that it was easier to do it this way and just avoid it while eating the fries.

Enjoy!

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  1. I grew up in African where Yucca/Cassava root is one of the staple foods. We got our Cassava fresh from the garden and sometimes used it as a snack while in the garden. we ate it raw right from the ground after peeling the skin off. I have never had of anyone in Uganda being poisoned by Cassava.

    Unless the writer was referring to the peel but that said the peel is fed to the goats, sheep and cows either fresh or after sun drying it.

    I really question the creditability of toxicity of Yucca/Cassava root.

  2. Quoting from Wikipedia ” References to yucca root as food often stem from confusion with the similarly pronounced, but botanically unrelated, yuca, also called cassava (Manihot esculenta).”