Oh my Goodness!!! Not ever in a bazillion kajillion years did I imagine plopping myself in front of a VIDEO Camera to talk about Yuca! I mean seriously, 2 years ago I practically needed a life coach to help me boil a pot of water, and now I am posting videos about how to cook random tubers?!?!!? I may have lost my mind altogether, but it’s true…
I HAVE A YOUTUBE!!!!
So here’s the scoop…I have had many MANY readers send inquiries about working with yuca. It can be a little tricky and sometimes a little sticky. And furthermore you basically have to saw off its waxy tree bark before you can even get to the good stuff. BUT, once you get the hang of it, it is a MAGICAL little root that is VERSATILE as all get out. I gathered up enough courage to put this on film because it is an amazing Autoimmune Paleo friendly solution to recreate many mainstream favorites. With yuca, I have enjoyed egg rolls, empanadas, pop tarts, chocolate filled ravioli and on and on. I have found that once I started working with yuca, the possibilities were endless. I have gotten more and more excited about it with each recipe I post and I hope with this video that your enthusiasm grows as
Check it out! If you don’t find yourself falling in love with yuca, you will at least get a kick out of watching my amateur attempt at video making!! Enjoy!!
That vid was AHHMAZINGLY Informative. Okay, buying yuca TODAY to make the empanadas!
Got yuca from my nearby grocery store, watched video again, made yuca dough. Used my blender, so only the yuca down by the blades got “doughy,” but I kneaded it a bit and formed the empanadas. They SOLD with my rather picky kid. Next time I will have to double the recipe! Thanks, Jen!!
Yesssssss! Win over the picky kid. LOVE!
Thank you for this. I happened upon it and I can’t wait to get it to work for me… which leads me to my question. I have let it cool for a couple hours.. still very sticky… very very sticky… I have added coconut oil and coconut flour ( a lot of it).. still really really sticky. What am I doing wrong? I boiled it just like in your video, but I processed it in the food processor instead of a blender is that the issue?
How many batches have you made Trisha? I get the occasional batch that seems stickier than others (but can always be corrected). You can try draining it really well and making sure no excess water goes in to the food processor too. The moisture I think is what makes it extra sticky. Do you think that would help?
Alright, I made the empanadas last night after watching your video and reading through the recipe. I was really excited about the idea of yucca dough and it seemed straightforward enough. I had some trouble with the dough. When I put it in my Blentec (really powerful blender of “Will it Blend” fame on Youtube) the dough near the blades blended and turned to a gluey substance and then caused a “overload” error on my blender ( that’s a first!). I still had a lot of unblended yucca chunks on top. Not wanting to destroy my expensive blender I took it out and put it in the food processor instead. Same problem so I still had lumps in my dough but not willing to sacrifice expensive appliances for this recipe I just took it out and let it cool. I pulled out the biggest lumps. Once it cooled and with a bit of coconut flour the dough was mostly fine with some small lumps. Of course I had the technique down by the time I got to the last empanada! My first ones were sad and holey but they held together! The dough was tastey and very dough like but If you have any ideas about why my dough turned to glue and almost destroyed my blender I would really appreciate it! I am not sure if I just boiled it too long or too little? I would love to try more recipes but I am scared 😉 Tips will be most appreciated!!
The dough can be a little tricky. I have traditionally used a Vitamix and use the tamper to really get the chunks to become incorporated. If there is no tamper, I’d stop after 30 seconds or so and maybe use a wooden spatula to loosen the dough from below the blades and then the bigger chunks can get down in there. Periodically stopping the machine to “stir things up” should help get more of the chunks blended in hopefully!
Part 2: Also overboiling can make it stickier so 20-25 minutes or until fork tender should be sufficient. Hope this helps!
Help! So, I used frozen yuca to start with and wondering if that was my problem because the dough was sticky beyond help. I let it cool completely in the fridge added coconut flour and it never became dough like. Do you think it was from using frozen yuca?