Yucca belongs to the family of herbs and these grown perennially. It has sword shaped leaves and has whitish flowers. It is a native plant for the Caribbean, America, Central America and South America. They are found in the prairie lands, mountainous and grassland regions. Yucca is basically treated as a garden plant meant to beautify the gardens. Many yucca varieties are edible- the flowers, roots, seeds, fruits and stems. Yucca has been known to heal diabetes and arthritis.
It belongs to the tuberous root family and it known to be very rich in carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and plant based nutrients. It is also used for the skin externally like cleansing, balding, skin cell regeneration, dandruff, and detoxifying, joint pains and heal wounds. It has high quantities of vitamin A,B and C. It also contains amounts of calcium, copper, manganese and phosphorus. It is good for the hair as well.
Ingredients needed to cook Yucca –
- ¼ cup cumin
- 1/3 cup bitter orange juice/or lemon juice
- 12 cloves of garlic
- 2 small Spanish onions
- ½ extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp salt
- 6 pounds of fresh yucca. Peeled and sliced. If bought frozen and bought peeled and sliced from the market that could be about 5 pounds.
- Salt
- Freshly ground pepper
Cooking Time –
- 45 minutes [preparation time is 10 minutes and cooking time is 35 minutes].
Method to cook Yucca –
- Put the yucca in a large pot. Cover with cold water, add salt and bowl in high amounts of heat. Then lower the heat and pork the yucca with a fork and allow the salt water to go in.
- The yucca should retain its shape
- Cook for about 30 minutes.
- Do not overcook because the yucca can turn really sticky.
- For the sauce heat olive oil in a pan in medium heat. Add the onions till they turn golden brown. Add garlic and cumin and sauté.Pour orange/lemon juice. Season with pepper and salt.
- Drain the water from the yucca.
- Add the yucca to a plate and cover the entire yucca with the sauce.
- Serves 6 to 8.
- It can be served with hot steaming rice, roast pork and beans in many of the Hispanic and Cuban cultures.
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