Move over potato salad and say hello to this Puerto Rican pickled cassava/yuca salad aka Yuca en Escabeche. The perfect side dish that is suitable for all dietary requirements.
Whenever I'm feeling fedup of eating potato salad I simply trade it in for some yuca aka cassava instead.
Trust me, if you have never eaten yuca before then you are in for a real treat. In the Caribbean yuca is eaten in the same manner that potatoes are.
You can boil it, fry it, mash it or even make fries with it. The list is endless to what you can do with it.
Today I'm going to show you how to make this delicious side dish hailing from Puerto Rico.
As titled the dish is called "Yuca en Escabeche" which translates to pickled cassava, in laymans terms.
Escabeche is a popular cooking method in the Caribbean which involves marinating or pickling (usually meat) in vinegar.
Jamaicans use this cooking method too, usually with fried fish (Escovitch Fish), although the pronouciation and spelling is different.
If you have ever been to a Latino gathering, more specifically a Puerto Rican one then you will know about this side dish because it makes a regular feature and people go back for seconds and thirds.
I like to add some cumin and oregano, and a hint of sweetener to my version of this Puerto Rican yuca salad recipe only because I like my yuca to have a bit more flavour but you can omit these ingredients if you wish to.
The steps
- Place the yuca in a saucepan with just enough water to cover then add pink salt along with the onion and garlic powder.
- Bring the pot to the boil, reduce the heat to medium, cover and simmer until tender.
- Drain off the excess water and set aside to cool.
- Prepare the escabeche by heating a medium sized saucepan and adding the olive oil.
- Saute the onions, garlic and peppers on medium heat until soft and translucent.
- Now add the vinegar, oregano, cumin, black pepper, pink salt and sweetener then stir once again and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
- Add the olives to the bowl of yuca.
- Pour the escabeche all over the yuca, combine and allow to completely cool down before serving.
- Serve accordingly.
Notes and tips
- You can use frozen pieces of yuca instead of fresh, this is also a lot easier to manage.
- Yuca is also known as cassava or manioc.
- This dish can be prepared ahead of time (up to 5 days), the flavour deepens the longer it is left to marinate for.
- You can use regular onions instead of red onions, I like to use it for the contrast in colour.
- The use of cumin, sweetener and oregano are optional.
- Make sure the yuca is fork tender (soft) but not too soft to the point that it falls apart.
- Be sure to discard the woody part in the centre of the yuca, this is inedible and needs to be removed.
- You can purchase yuca from any Caribbean/Latino supermarket.
More cassava/yuca recipes to try
More Latin American dishes to try
- Cuban Black Beans
- Vegan Mofongo
- Vegan Empanadas
- Dominican Mangu
- Pastelon
- Cuban Picadillo
- Moros y Cristiano
- Chicheme
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Yuca en Escabeche
Ingredients
- 1½ lb yuca (680g) chopped and peeled
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder (3g)
- 1 teaspoon onion powder (2g)
- ½ teaspoon pink salt (3g)
For the escabeche
- ¾ cup olive oil (177ml)
- 1 red onion sliced
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- ½ red bell pepper chopped up small
- ⅓ cup vinegar (85g)
- 1 teaspoon oregano (2g)
- ½ teaspoon cumin (1g)
- ½ teaspoon black pepper (1g)
- ½ teaspoon pink salt (3g)
- 1 tablespoon sweetener of your choice (15g) optional
- 4 tablespoon green olives (32g) sliced in halves
Instructions
- Place the yuca in a saucepan with just enough water to cover then add pink salt along with the onion and garlic powder.
- Bring the pot to the boil, reduce the heat to medium, cover and simmer until tender.
- Drain off the excess water and set aside to cool.
- Prepare the escabeche by heating a medium sized saucepan and adding the olive oil.
- Saute the onions, garlic and peppers on medium heat until soft and translucent.
- Now add the vinegar, oregano, cumin, black pepper, pink salt and sweetener then stir once again and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
- Add the olives to the bowl of yuca.
- Pour the escabeche all over the yuca, combine and allow to completely cool down before serving.
- Serve accordingly.
Notes
- You can use frozen pieces of yuca instead of fresh, this is also a lot easier to manage.
- Yuca is also known as cassava or manioc.
- This dish can be prepared ahead of time (up to 5 days), the flavour deepens the longer it is left to marinate for.
- You can use regular onions instead of red onions, I like to use it for the contrast in colour.
- The use of cumin, sweetener and oregano are optional.
- Make sure the yuca is fork tender (soft) but not too soft to the point that it falls apart.
- Be sure to discard the woody part in the centre of the yuca, this is inedible and needs to be removed.
- You can purchase yuca from any Caribbean/Latino supermarket.
Liz says
Sounds delicious! What kind of vinegar do you use? White?
Charla says
Thank you! My apologies for not stating, I used apple cider but white works just fine too.