I love Thanksgiving it’s almost as festive as Christmas with no shopping or wrapping of gifts required. Carrie over at the Tiki Tiki Blog asked me to share a traditional recipe we use on Thanksgiving. It was easy for me to choose yuca. I have a mild obession with Yuca. I like it boiled, mashed, fried and baked. On Thanksgiving, I pile up the yuca then add a little bit of turkey and cranberry to go with it.

So what is Yuca? Yuca is a rather ugly looking root that Caribbeans just love and other folks are confused about. I really see no point in using fresh yuca so go for the frozen.

On Thanksgiving, I like to make yuca that has a bit of visual pop so I use olives and lots of onions to give my yuca a “pick me” look :

Ingredients:

• 2 pound bag of Yuca
• 3 tbsp lime juice
• 1 cup olive oil
• 1 tbsp Adobo
• 5 garlic cloves chopped
• 4 medium onions chopped fine
• 30 small green olives chopped
• 4 bay leaves

Instructions:
Yuca

1. Boil yuca in salted water about 25 minutes (until you can put a knife through one)
2. Important to asustar (scare) the yuca so it does not get mushy! So drain and run cold water over your Yuca.
3. Put the cooked yuca in a serving dish

The Sauce:

1. Saute onions in olive oil until brown
2. Add the garlic, olives, bay leaves and Adobo (a spice mix available in the Hispanic section of supermarket)
3. Add lime juice
4. Add salt and pepper to taste
5. Pour over the Yuca

Yuca can look and taste bland so make sure your onions get brown and you use olive oil to add some needed color and sabor to your yuca. Adding olives is not traditional but adds a nice flavor. If you have leftovers, drain off the sauce, chop up your yuca into cubes size and fry. Leftover yuca makes great home fries!

Check out the Tiki Tiki Blog’s great Thanksgiving recipe round up:  El Mish Mash that is Our Thanksgiving

What’s your favorite Thanksgiving dish? And what kind of left over magic do you do?

Happy Thanksgiving!

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