Fermenting Cassava - Healthy, Easy, Yummy

For Fruits and Veggies Monday today, am sharing you about cassava!

Cassava is an edible root vegetable from Indonesia (well it's grown in most of tropical countries!). It is low in fat, has more protein than yams and potatoes, high in calories, has complex B-vitamins, also a great source of essential minerals for the body, the leaves are edible (we cook the leaves into soup and or for salad - it contains tons of Vitamin K and proteins), and it's gluten free! How awesome is that, right? 😉

For the roots, we usually steam, make chips, or fry them for snacking.

We also use a lot of cassava in our cakes and desserts.

I feel lucky, sometimes, that we can find easily fresh cassava here in Canada. Why sometimes? Well mainly because, I often find degrading quality of cassava sold here. Almost rotten 😫. They are imported from far away country, I know that, but as they aren't cheap per pound, sold in big sizes, it adds up so much in the final price at the cashier 😂 So to get bad quality cassava is annoying 😅

We also can get frozen and grated cassava here in Canada, which mainly sold at Asian stores. When am too lazy to process the cassava myself, I'd get those frozen ones. 😅

Cassava also the based for making tapioca flour and tapioca pearls! We use a lot of tapioca pearls in our dessert drinks, just like those pearls you find in bubble tea 😉

Sadly we cannot get cassava leaves here in Canada. Been here for 15 years, have never seen any! So when I am missing cassava leaves soup, I'd use kale as the subsitute. Next time I will share the recipe! For today though, I am sharing you how I prepare fermented cassava. They are great to eat as is, perfect ingredient in baking, and super healthy - yes, just like other fermented foods, they are healthy for you!

Let's see how I ferment the cassava ! We call it tape singkong by the way! 😉

• Cut cassava into pieces

• Peel the skin

• Steam cassava until cooked, soften but still firm a little too. So don't over cook them!

• Cool to room temperature
• Crush 1 round of Indonesian yeast (you can use Chinese wine yeast too, found them at Chinatown) and sprinkle cooked cassava evenly.
• Place yeasted cassava in Tupperware, cover with lid and wrap the container with clean kitchen towel.

• Store container in a dark room that is warm (do you have a cupboard above your fridge? That is a perfect place to ferment it!

• Check after at least 48 H, it should be tender to the touch and produce sweet fragrant.
• Store in the fridge for a good one week!

• Eat as is, add it to your cold dessert drink, add it in baking.

Important note

The longer you store fermented cassava, the stronger flavor and smell it develops, and that would be the base of making traditional alcholic drink 😂

#fruitsandveggiesmonday is hosted by @lenasveganliving

Thanks for looking!