Love the tender mildness of zucchini? How concerning the crisp crunch of cucumber? Then it’s time to get cooking with chayote, their pear-shaped cousin that tastes a bit like each. Right here’s a rundown of all of the methods to cook dinner with chayote, plus prep, purchasing, and storage suggestions for the ultra-versatile vegetable.
What Is Chayote?
Chayote (rhymes with “coyote”) is a kind of squash with the style and texture of summer season squash and the harvest season (late summer season to early fall) and prolonged storage of winter squash. Native to Central America, chayote was a staple meals for the Aztecs when European explorers encountered it. Its cultivation unfold all through the Caribbean and into the American South, then onto India and Asia.
As chayote made its method across the globe, it took on many alternative names. French audio system name it “christophine,” after Christopher Columbus, one of many explorers who introduced it again to Europe. Cajun cooks name it mirliton, and all through the Deep South, it’s typically known as vegetable pear or alligator pear. All through the Caribbean, chayote is called chocho. In India, it’s known as chow-chow, and one Chinese language time period for chayote is “Buddha’s hand squash,” for the way in which the grooved sides make it appear to be two palms in prayer.
The oval vegetable has easy, furrowed, vibrant inexperienced pores and skin, and a single seed on the middle, which is edible however normally eliminated. Chayote vines are additionally grown for his or her edible roots, which will be cooked like potatoes, and their tender shoots, that are a delicacy in Asian cuisines.
What Does Chayote Style Like?
Uncooked chayote is crunchy and subtly candy, like cucumber or jicama. When cooked, chayote takes on a zucchini-like texture and tenderness, and its mild-flavored flesh absorbs and highlights all of the flavors of the opposite substances in a recipe.
Chayote Choice, Storage, and Prep Suggestions
Select squash that feels heavy and additional agency with vibrant inexperienced pores and skin that has no blemishes or wrinkles. Massive chayotes and people who have wrinkled pores and skin can style robust and dry. Chayotes will maintain for 2 weeks at room temperature and as much as two months within the crisper drawer of the fridge.
Chayote pores and skin is edible, although most cooks favor to take away it with a peeler. Rinse peeled chayotes beneath chilly operating water to take away the sticky sap that’s just under the pores and skin earlier than utilizing. Halve chayote lengthwise, and come out the seed.
Learn how to Prepare dinner with Chayote
Chayote will be eaten uncooked, however the most effective issues about chayote is its dense flesh that holds its form when cooked. That agency texture means chayote will be cooked any method you possibly can consider, and may stand in for nearly any vegetable. Listed below are some methods to make use of it.
Methods to Use It
Stuffed: Boil complete chayote till tender, then halve and stuff it the way in which you’d bell peppers or eggplant.
In salads, facet dishes, or casseroles: Steam or boil peeled and diced/sliced chayote. Add items to salads, facet dishes, gratins, and casseroles the identical method you’d potatoes.
Roasted or grilled: Minimize peeled and seeded chayote into thick slices or chunks; then roast within the oven at 400˚F for 20 minutes or till browned and crispy. You may also grill chayote slices and chunks the way in which you’d zucchini or yellow squash. Roasting and grilling provides chayote a smoky taste and crisp exterior.
In slaws: Grate uncooked peeled chayote and add it to slaws.
In grain bowls: Slice, cube, or grate uncooked peeled chayote for a crunchy addition to grain bowls.
Salsas: Chop uncooked peeled chayote into ¼-inch cubes so as to add a refreshing factor to salsas.
