Basic Use and Preparation

Yuca must always be cooked. It can be used in both sweet and savory dishes. The flesh can be cooked and puréed or riced, or it can be prepared like potatoes: boiled and mashed, cooked and sliced as a side dish, or added to a soup or stew. It can also be thinly sliced on a mandoline for making deep-fried chips, or it can be coarsely grated for a sweet dessert filling. The starch in yuca is commercially processed to produce the pearled starch known as tapioca. The roots are ground into flour or meal to make dumplings, bread, and porridge-style dishes.