Jicama Sticks with Chili and Lime
Cold jicama batons and orange segments tossed with lime juice and chili powder, finished with pan toasted pumpkin seeds and torn cilantro for crunch on crunch.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
This is what I put on the table at four in the afternoon when everyone is picking at things and nobody wants to cook. Jicama is crisp and faintly sweet and stays that way for hours, so a bowl of these sticks can sit out through a whole afternoon without going limp. It is a street cart snack at heart and it belongs on a hot day.
Chili powder and lime are the pairing that makes jicama taste like something rather than like water. The lime juice wets every surface so the chili has somewhere to stick, and the salt pulls a little juice out of the sticks, which mixes with the lime into a thin dressing at the bottom of the bowl. Orange segments go in for sweetness and for the juice they release.
The pumpkin seeds are the part people do not expect. Toasted in a dry pan until they swell and pop, they bring a warm oily crunch against the cold wet snap of the jicama, and that contrast is what turns a plate of raw vegetable into something you keep returning to. The fat in the seeds is what gives it staying power, so it eats cold and light and still carries you to dinner.
Ingredients
- 1 medium jicama (about 1 1/2 lb), peeled and cut into thick sticks
- 2 oranges, peeled and cut into segments
- 3 tbsp lime juice (about 2 limes)
- 1 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 3 tbsp pumpkin seeds
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
- Toast the pumpkin seeds: Set a dry skillet over medium heat and add the pumpkin seeds in a single layer. Toast 3 to 4 minutes, shaking the pan often, until they swell, pop and smell nutty. Tip them onto a plate right away, since they keep browning in a hot pan and turn bitter.
- Peel the jicama properly: Slice the top and bottom flat so the jicama sits still on the board, then run a knife down the sides to take off the brown skin and the fibrous layer just beneath it. That layer stays stringy no matter what you do, so cut deeper than looks necessary until you reach bright white flesh.
- Cut thick sticks: Cut the peeled jicama into slabs about half an inch thick, then into sticks the length of your finger. Keep them thick. Thin sticks bend under a tooth and lose the loud snap that is the entire point of this bowl.
- Segment the oranges: Cut the top and bottom off each orange, stand it upright and cut the peel and white pith away in strips down the curve. Cut between the membranes to free the segments, working over your serving bowl so every drop of juice ends up in the dressing.
- Dress and rest: Add the jicama to the orange and its juice, pour over the lime juice, sprinkle on the chili powder and salt, and toss with your hands until every stick is coated pink. Let it sit 5 minutes so the salt and lime draw juice out of the jicama.
- Finish at the table: Scatter the toasted pumpkin seeds and torn cilantro over the top just before the bowl goes out, so the seeds are still crunchy when the first person reaches in.
Variations
- Cucumber and mango: Add spears of cucumber and mango to the bowl for a wetter, sweeter version closer to what the carts sell.
- Sharper heat: A pinch of cayenne and extra lime zest give the sticks the hotter finish of a chili lime salt.
- Clementine swap: Clementine segments where the orange goes make it sweeter and easier, and children will eat a whole bowl.
- Smoky: Trade half the chili powder for smoked paprika so the heat sits behind a wood smoke flavor.
- Scallion finish: Thin scallion rings where the cilantro goes give a mild onion bite for anyone who finds cilantro soapy.
Storage & Leftovers
Cut jicama is unusually patient. Sticks keep up to five days in a sealed container of cold water in the refrigerator and stay every bit as crisp, which is why I peel a whole one at a time. Drain them well before dressing or the lime will taste watery.
Once dressed, the bowl holds about two days cold. The jicama stays crisp, the orange softens and gives up more juice, and the chili deepens as it sits. Stir before serving, because all the good liquid settles to the bottom.
Hold the pumpkin seeds and cilantro back until serving. Seeds go soft within an hour of meeting citrus juice and cilantro leaves darken and slump. Toast a jar of seeds at the start of the week and scatter them fresh each time.
Notes & Tips
- Cut deep when peeling: There is a fibrous layer under the brown skin that no amount of chewing will fix, so take all of it off.
- Thick sticks only: Half an inch is the floor. Anything thinner bends before it snaps.
- Toast the seeds dry: No oil in the pan, constant shaking, and out onto a plate the second they start popping.
- Salt early, seeds late: Salt and lime need five minutes to draw juice, but the seeds only need to hit the bowl on the way to the table.
- Work over the bowl: Segment the oranges above your serving bowl so every drop that runs out lands in the dressing.
- Keep it cold: Jicama tastes best straight from the refrigerator, so chill the whole bowl twenty minutes before serving on a warm day.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- Jicama, orange and toasted pumpkin seeds are each doing a different job in the same bowl. The jicama brings the cold snap and the fiber, the orange brings juice and sweetness, and the seeds bring fat and a warm toasted crunch against all that coldness.
- Jicama is mostly water and inulin, a fiber your gut bacteria feed on, which is part of why something this crisp and refreshing still settles rather than passing straight through. Cut thick, it keeps that loud snap for days.
- Orange segments cut free of their membranes release juice into the bowl and become the sweet half of the dressing, and they carry the vitamin C that makes citrus taste as bright as it does.
- Pumpkin seeds toasted dry until they pop bring magnesium and zinc along with their oiliness, and they are the reason a bowl of raw vegetable eats like a real snack.
- Chili powder, lime juice and salt are what turn jicama from plain into something you keep reaching for. The salt pulls juice out of the sticks, the lime dissolves the chili, and the whole bowl ends up sitting in a thin pink dressing of its own making.
- As you eat, notice the cold snap of each stick against the toasted seeds and the way the lime hits a moment before the chili does, and let the bowl last longer than the first three handfuls.
Frequently Asked Questions
What if I cannot find jicama?
Kohlrabi and daikon are the closest in texture, both crisp and mildly sweet, and both take chili and lime the same way. Green mango is the traditional choice on a hot street corner and is wonderful if you like the sourness.
My sticks went bendy. What did I do wrong?
They were most likely cut too thin, or the peeled jicama sat out on the counter. Cut thick, and if you are not dressing right away keep the sticks submerged in cold water in the refrigerator. Cold water actually firms them up.
Can I make this the night before a party?
Yes, with one change. Cut the jicama and segment the oranges, keep them in separate containers, and toss with the lime, chili and salt about an hour before people arrive. Dressed too early, the chili loses its edge and the bowl goes muddy.
Is there anything from an animal here?
No. It is jicama, orange, lime, chili powder, salt, cilantro and toasted pumpkin seeds, so it works for a table where people eat all sorts of ways. If you want it hotter, chili powder is where to add.