I Miss Potatoes: Please Help

I need a low-carb option that tastes like potatoes, can be substituted for potatoes easily, and doesn’t make me cringe when I bite into it. And I need it right now. Or even better, a few weeks ago when I had a moderate mental breakdown and found myself tossing a bag of frozen french fries into my cart at the grocery store. Note how I say “found myself” as if I was not fully invested in the decision. I knew what I was doing.

Breakdown

I wanted potatoes. Salty and warm and crispy and terribly full of carbs sure to destroy my diet, which they did. That one bag of french fries stole days from my routine and still has a firm hold on my love handles. Especially when attempting the keto diet, one day of indulgence can be incredibly difficult to overcome.

Fortunately, I burned at least a few hundred calories researching possible alternatives to my next bad decision. But what can actually replace potatoes without tasting like an impostor? The answer is a vegetable that isn’t common in Western diets but has a surprising number of advantages: jicama.

Alternative

Jicama has long been my go-to when I need a crunchy, light snack. I usually keep a container of jicama sticks in the fridge, but I’ve primarily used them as a replacement for vegetables that are higher on the glycemic index such as carrots, not as a replacement for potatoes.

Jicama is a root vegetable with a flavor somewhere between potatoes, water chestnuts, and apples. Admittedly, I rarely meet people who agree with me regarding the apple component. (Maybe I never learned how to pick the right apples?)

From the outside, jicama looks like an onion with the skin of a potato. From the inside–an important view as the skin is inedible–jicama looks like a slightly more porous potato. With all of its similarities to potatoes, the significant difference is found in nutritional value.

Nutrition

A serving of jicama contains roughly half the calories, half the carbs, and twice the fiber of what you’ll found in potatoes.1 This distinction makes jicama a logical, and flavorful alternative to potatoes. Jicama also provides Vitamin C and potassium.

Perhaps the best part of swapping potatoes for jicama is that it has already been done. People with the ability to craft recipes realized the value of this unsightly root long before I arrived on the scene.

So the next time I find myself tossing bad life decisions in my cart, I can maneuver to the produce aisle instead and still get the fix of french fries. I can even buy them pre-cut and peeled for additional ease. Although this root still contains quite a few carbs, the vast majority of them are dietary fiber, meaning they don’t count against your net carbs. While you shouldn’t make jicama a daily part of your keto diet, it can certainly be a lower-carb alternative when you’re craving potatoes and just need to indulge in a starchy snack.