Dominican Boiled Root Vegetables
I lived in the Dominican Republic and enjoyed this simple dish of boiled root vegetables. Serve with avocado, fried salami, sardines, fried eggs, rice and beans, or your own choice of meat.
I lived in the Dominican Republic and enjoyed this simple dish of boiled root vegetables. Serve with avocado, fried salami, sardines, fried eggs, rice and beans, or your own choice of meat.
- Carbohydrate 9.89966666666667 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 0.051 g
- Fiber 1.24666669368744 g
- Protein 1.14466666666667 g
- Saturated Fat 0.0147333333333333 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (58g)
- Sodium 584.77 mg
- Sugar 8.65299997297923 g
- Trans Fat 0.0107666666666667 g
- Calories 44 calories
Step-by-step
- Cut away peeling from plaintain ( can be green or partially ripe, preferably not ripe or over ripe which are prepared differently)
- Cut away peeling from green banana (optional, can also be boiled by themselves and servedas side to chicken etc.)
- Slice in large chunks both.
- Peel away outer layer of yucca root or cassava ( preferably not Jamaica yucca which is prepared differently and usually larger in size)
- Peel edoes and potatoes.
- Cut in large chunks yucca root, edoes and potato.
- Place in large enough pot.
- Fill 1/4 to 1/3 full of water.
- Cover pot with lid.
- During cooking add salt.
- Boil together until soft.
- Serve immediately.
Staggering the addition of dense root vegetables prevents outer starches from dissolving before the interior softens. Yucca and green bananas require different cellular breakdowns than soft potatoes and edoes. Boiling these varied tubers together necessitates uniform sizing and careful water management. Cut denser items like yucca and green plantains into consistent two-inch chunks to match the cooking speed of smaller potatoes. Using too much water leaches water-soluble starches and flavor compounds out of the roots. Maintain a liquid level covering only one-quarter to one-third of the vegetables inside a tightly lidded pot, allowing the steam to cook the upper portions evenly.
Substitutions alter the pot dynamics significantly. Yautia or malanga work well in place of edoes, though they release more thickening starch into the remaining cooking liquid. Regular orange sweet potatoes can substitute for purple varieties, but high-sugar cultivars disintegrate faster in boiling water and must be checked with a paring knife at the twenty-minute mark. If green bananas are unavailable, increase the quantity of plantains or add breadfruit chunks of equivalent volume.
Refrigerating boiled tropical roots alters their texture through retrogradation, causing starches to crystallize and firm up significantly. Store cooled leftovers in an airtight container for up to three days. Transform chilled roots by pan-frying them in oil over medium heat until a crisp exterior forms, reviving the dense interior without steaming them back to mush.
