Large products Argentina
Laura Litvin. Journalist
Instagram: @laulitvin
Particular features: woody, tan skin and ivory white pulp in the center. Also known as yucca, aipim, tapioca, guacamota, casabe or casava in different countries of America, this ancestral tuber is cooked in a thousand ways in different countries. The oldest evidence of its consumption is recorded in Peru and it is known to be a plant native to tropical America. Today it feeds millions of people with its enormous nutritional properties. It is that the roots of the cassava (manihot esculenta) offer succulent doses of carbohydrates and starches of high nutritional value.
Photography: Leo Liberman
The food of the future
Considered by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as the food of the future to eradicate hunger in the world, it is estimated that since 2000 the world production of chips It increased by 60%, which positions this crop, typical of the Argentine northeast, as the protagonist of the diet.
The jewel of the Guaraní culture: cassava
In South America there are the Guaraní peoples, who dominated the territories of Brazil, Paraguay, northeastern Argentina, and northern Uruguay. They know the properties of chips since ever. They cook it in a thousand ways: boiled, embers, fried or baked. It must always be peeled and heated because it has toxic components not suitable for human consumption that fire redeems. In Argentina, the main production area is mainly in the provinces of Misiones.
Dbreakfast to dinner
If you visit the Iguazú Falls or the Jesuit ruins of San Ignacio (in Misiones) or the natural reserves of the Esteros del Iberá (in Corrientes), there will be no shortage of people who welcome the traveler with a delicious mate. This is the area where Argentine yerba mate is produced. Accompanied by some warm chipás (cassava starch bread and cheese), it is an emblem of local gastronomy. But there is not only the chipá.
Numerous recipes based on chips They are rescued by the cooks with the intention of not losing the immense Guaraní culinary heritage. Try the mbeyú (thin tortillas) or the Paraguayan soup. The latter is a pudding based on cornmeal or chips which has cheese, eggs and milk. It is a characteristic dish of Paraguay.
In recent years, the chips It is also consumed as a snack (home or industrial). Instead, flour is used to make breads and pasta (replacing flour in products for celiacs). A nutritious universe to add value.
