Yuca en Escabeche

Yuca en Escabeche is made with cassava or yuca as is called in Spanish. It is boiled tender and then mixed with the escabeche which is made with sauteed garlic, onion, peppers, and vinegar.

In Puerto Rican cuisine we make many escabeche recipes. We make chicken escabeche, guineos en escabeche, and escabeche de yuca. You often see it sold in places where they sell pollo asado entero.

My favorite way of serving yuca is with rice and beans or yellow rice with ribs. I also like to make yuca fr whenever I make pork chunks.

Recipe Ingredients

• Salt– the tablespoon of salt here is used to season the water. Just like you will do if you are cooking pasta.
• Yuca– I used 1 pound of fresh yuca. You can also use frozen and save time.
• Oil– I used ¾ cups of vegetable oil because it has a very neutral taste. But you can use olive oil if you like the taste.
• Onion– I used ½ of a small yellow onion but you can use white or red onion. 
• Red and Green pepper– I used ¼ of each. Substitution: use the same quantity of pimiento morron for red pepper and cubanele pepper for green pepper.
• Bay leaves & peppercorns– I used 3 leaves and half teaspoons of peppercorns.
• Garlic and Onion powder– 1 teaspoon of garlic powder and half of a teaspoon of onion powder are used to give a nice flavor to the dish.
• Garlic paste– I used ½ tablespoon of freshly minced garlic paste. I like to add the garlic in a paste and not slices because it gives the dish a prominent taste of garlic.
• Vinegar– white vinegar is a key flavor in this recipe. I added ¼ cup of vinegar because I like a smooth subtle vinegar taste. You can add ¼ cup more if you like a strong vinegar taste.

How To Make Yuca En Escabeche

• Photo 1: There are two different ways to peel yuca. You can chop off the ends and cut them into 3-inch-long pieces. Then make a line going down the middle and carefully lift the skin with the knife. Or cut the ends off and remove the skin with a vegetable peeler. Peel like you would a potato.
• Photo 2: In a large pot add the water, salt, and yuca over high heat. Cover and cook for 30 minutes and drain. Test the tenderness by inserting a fork into a piece of yuca. Sometimes it may take a little longer to make depending on thickness.

• Photo 3: Cut the vegetables into ¼ inch strips. In reality, you can cut the vegetables any way you like to present them. It doesn’t make much of a difference since we only sautee them not cook them all the way thru. 
• Photo 4: Once the yuca is cooked, remove the woody root in the middle. This step you can do before cooking or after.

• Photo 5: In a medium pan add the oil, onions, peppers, bay leaves, garlic, and onion powder. You need to saute for 2 minutes. Stir to prevent the veggies from burning. Turn off the heat, add the garlic, and vinegar, and stir.
• Photo 6: Now this step you can do it in 2 ways. You can add the yuca to the pan and mix everything like I did. Or you can pour the escabeche over your yuca.

📓 Note: I add the garlic once the heat is off to avoid burning it.