Yuca – the omnipresent root vegetable that lurks around every corner of Colombian menus, kitchens and dining tables. It’s an amazing vegetable that seems to be extremely versatile! You can eat it on its own, deep fried or boiled, use it as part of your soup as an alternative to potatoes to make it more filling, or as a complement to your main course as yuca chips!

However, its true beauty is in all the incredibly delicious by-products that Colombians have been able to generate out of it, such as carimañolas, buñuelo, pan de yuca, and pandebono.

Its popularity in Colombia and other parts the world is evident. According to United Nations, ‘it’s the third highest source of is the third most important source of calories in the  tropics [countries that are around the equator], after rice and maize, providing a basic diet for around 502 million people‘!!

Although it’s so widely consumed in Colombia, you can still find people who don’t like it because of ‘how it tastes like’, which I find quite strange, considering that this vegetable, like potato, doesn’t have much of a taste..

One obvious down side of frequent consumption of yuca is that apparently it provides a very poor source of protein. So, health fanatics may wish to stick to their couscous or quinoa instead.. Still, having one every now and then wouldn’t hurt!