Recipe: Eddoes / Taro Root

For some reason, Price Chopper, a discount grocery store in Ontario that is affiliated with Sobeys, is my town's best source of exotic, foreign or off-beat fruits and vegetables. A regular in their produce department is Eddoes. Eddoes are a root that look similar to a potato but with an outer skin that looks more like coconut.

I've bought them before and simply peeled and baked them with a mixture of potatoes, yams, and some other veggies. I bought a bunch this week and after doing a little research into how they're traditionally cooked, I came up with a recipe of my own that tasted pretty darn good.

First, some facts on Eddoes or Taro Root:

• grown as a food crop in West Africa, much of Asia, Central America, South America, the Caribbean and Polynesia
• most known as the main ingredient in the Hawaiian dish, Poi
• juices secreted while peeling the raw Eddoe can cause skin irritation
• the raw Eddoe can be toxic and should only be eaten cooked
• great source of fibre, protein, calcium and phosphorus

The Recipe:

We'll call it 'Mashed Eddoes with Tomato, Celery and Onion', for simplicity sake...

Ingredients:

• 5 or 6 Eddoes, peeled and cut in chunks
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 2 sticks of celery, diced
• 2 good sized tomatoes, diced
• 1/2 scotch bonnet pepper, thinly diced (optional)
• 4 TBSP extra-virgin olive oil

Instructions:

1. peel and wash Eddoes
2. cut Eddoes into chunks (2-3 per)
3. boil Eddoes until flesh is tender when poked with a fork or knife
4. drain and rinse Eddoes
5. mash Eddoes with a masher and leave in pot
6. in a frying pan, saute onions, pepper and celery until onions are yellow and translucent
7. add tomatoes and simmer for about 10 minutes
8. add the contents of the frying pan to the pot of mashed Eddoes and stir

What you get is a great tasting side dish that most would think are mashed potatoes with a distinctively different, tasty flavour. Or, if you're like me, this amount will serve as a full meal for dinner and the next day's lunch...