Cassava, manioc, and yuca are all names for the same starchy tuber grown throughout South America, Africa, and Asia. You might be more familiar with it in its dried and powdered form: tapioca. This root is a dietary mainstay in many parts of the world and forms the carbohydrate base for many excellent meals. Do you ever cook with cassava?
Cassava is a highly drought-resistant crop that was first cultivated in the northern parts of South America before spreading to other tropical regions in Africa and Asia. The root itself is long and narrow with tough brown skin covering dense creamy-white flesh. Cassava is extremely hardy, lasting for weeks in storage or up to several years if left in the ground.
Something to know is that all cassava produce toxic cyanide, but the two main edible varieties produce it in different amounts. "Sweet" cassava is the root most often sold for home cooking and has its cyanide concentrated near the surface. After peeling and normal cooking, it is safe to eat. "Bitter" cassava has cyanide throughout the root and can only be eaten after extensive grating, washing, and pressing to remove the harmful toxins. Bitter cassava is not typically sold for home use, especially here in the US, and is more commonly used to make tapioca and other cassava by-products.
Think of cassava like potatoes: it can be steamed, boiled, baked, or fried before being eaten on its own, mashed, or added to other dishes. It has a very mild flavor that takes seasonings very well. To prepare it for cooking, just peel off the outer skin, chop it into pieces, and cook until soft and no longer crunchy.
Do you use cassava in your cooking? What are your favorite dishes?
Related: What's the Difference Between Yuca and Yucca?
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I love Escondidinho Cassava with dried meat. It is a recipe typical of northeastern Brazil.
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Patty
Indonesians eat a lot of cassava, both in tuber form or in the tapioca form. My favorite is actually the cassava leaves. Usually you'll find them braised or boiled, served in coconut milk to accompany Padang dishes. The taste is similar to that of collard greens that haven't been cooked to death.
I love fried cassava as well, just simple fried and eaten with some some bird chili peppers. Great afternoon street vendor snacks.
I bought some yuca flour at a bodega near me, not really knowing what it was. I used it to make some tapioca-choux dumplings, stuffed with turnips, sharp cheddar, and thyme. They turned out very nice!
I've also used it to thicken ice cream.
The Caribbean eats a lot of yuca as well, so do the Atlantic regions of Central America. Fried yuca is a great (but unhealthy) treat!
By the way, I don't know if it applies here, but I've noticed that many people don't realize that yuca is also yuca in English, so they end up writing yucca instead. Yucca is an entirely other plant!
There's a great place in Dallas that gives you yucca fries instead of potato and they're amazing. Crispy but chewy when you bite into them. I got some for my husband and he inhaled them before I could tell him they weren't potatoes!
The Cuban side of my family ALWAYS has yuca at any get together. My grandparents grow it in their yard. We boil it (after peeled) in highly salted water and then top it with olive oil infused heavily with roasted garlic. If we have leftovers (which we usually do after the typical Cuban Christmas Eve dinner) we usually slice the cooked leftovers and fry it to make crispy yuca. Also, Pollo Campero (a delicious Latin American fried chicken chain) serves pretty good yuca fries.
after a trip to puerto rico i became obsessed with a dish called mofongo. it's super easy to make and delicious!
My grocery store has a bunch of bins of this stuff, some marked yuca and some marked manioc. What's the difference?
Boiled yucca with good olive oil, lemon juice, and salt are a great alternative to baked potatoes (love it with grilled pork!). Nicaraguans make a refreshing salad -- vigoron -- with yucca, cabbage slaw, and crispy pork skin.
Cassava cake and pichi pichi! Two of my favorite Filipino desserts. The first consists of baking grated cassava with eggs, evaporated milk, condensed milk and coconut milk. The second, steaming a mixture of grated cassava, sugar and water. Then coating it with grated coconut. Yum!!
In Panama we use yuca in many dishes: carimañolas (Like a yuca croquette filled with meat), yuca al mojo (mojo is some kind of chimichurri), some people add it to soups. It tastes really good, but you have to cook it very well, cause it needs to be tender.
joi, traditional mofongo is made with plantains, not yuca. if you were in PR, chances are it was plantain based.
Yuca fries are the BEST!
Also there is a thai place down the road that uses the flour to make tapioca noodles for their soup and they are so delish!