Yacon

This was one of the vegetables we had to google before tasting. The farmers regularly offer items we had never heard of and since we want to encourage diversity, we always try. Meaning "water root" in the Inca language, it turns out this tuber is quite the rockstar. Filled with fructo-oligosaccharide and dietary fiber, the former gives you sweetness without being absorbed into your system as sugar; the latter promotes great gut health. Diabetics and probiotics unite!

What does it taste like? Kinda like a sweet singkamas. It is also forever crunchy. How to enjoy? It's really good raw, so just peel and slice. They oxidize easily though so have some citrus juice ready to spritz or include in the salad dressing. Whenever my mom asks for green apple for juicing I would suggest this instead. Beyond that, anything that calls for singkamas could use this I believe. It absorbs most flavors and its sweetness is not cloying.

Delivery-wise we struggle a little because roots can arrive as small as a baby's fist to as large as Ernest's arm so it can totally throw off our tampipi plans. But it's such a great investment! Apparently it's a perennial so for as long as the farmer cares for the plant, s/he can harvest every year. The plants are tall and the leaves are edible too (though we haven't tried)! We definitely want this one in our roster for climate change. With all its health benefits too, you feel like the Earth holds for us a first aid kit. 

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/dec/13/how-grow-and-cook-yacon