What Is Taro? 7 Ways to Serve the Root Vegetable

Taro (Colocasia esculenta) is a tropical herbaceous plant native to southeast Asia and part of the Araceae family, along with the malanga and eddo roots. Featuring elephant ear-shaped leaves, the taro plant produces edible corms, a food staple in the Pacific Islands and the Caribbean.

To safely consume taro, you must cook it. Cooked taro corms have a sweet and nutty flavor that you might compare to a sweet potato or yam. Smaller taro corms with a purple tint are often sweeter than their larger, paler counterparts. Varieties of taro are common in puddings, breads, and poi (a Hawaiian dish). Taro has a nutritional profile that includes carbohydrates, dietary fiber, magnesium, potassium, vitamin E, vitamin B6, and vitamin C.

Like the raw roots, raw taro leaves are toxic due to high levels of calcium oxalate—a compound that causes kidney stones and mouth irritation, such as numbing, burning, and itching. You can safely consume taro leaves after you boil them; the starch has a mild nutty flavor and a texture similar to spinach.

Raw taro is toxic, so you must cook it for consumption. You can prepare taro corms like potatoes—steamed, boiled, fried, roasted, or mashed—or you can pound taro down into a paste or powder. You can use processed taro for baking flour, smoothies, soups, stews, and bubble or boba tea.

You can purchase taro powder at an Asian supermarket or make taro paste at home. To make your own taro paste, cut the root into cubes and steam them for fifteen minutes on high heat. After they cook, mash the cubes with a fork.

There are endless manners in which you can serve cooked taro root—a potato-like corm high in resistant starch. Here are some popular ways to serve the taro plant’s root vegetables.

1. 1. Poi: This side dish is popular in Hawaii, where cooks simply steam the root and mash it, adding water until smooth.
2. 2. Taro chips: Thinly slice the taro root and bake it in the oven or air fryer for a crunchy alternative to potato chips.
3. 3. Taro curry: This spicy, sauce-forward dish is popular in southern India.
4. 4. Taro French fries: Crispy, purple-flecked taro French fries can serve as a potato alternative.
5. 5. Taro frozen yogurt or ice cream: Purple taro root powder can make frozen yogurt or ice cream desserts aesthetically unique.
6. 6. Taro milk tea: Also called taro bubble tea, this drink consists of three ingredients—purple ground taro root, tapioca pearls, and jasmine tea.
7. 7. Taro pancakes: You can purchase taro pancake mix at specialty grocery stores or utilize leftover poi for homemade batter.

Predominant differences between taro corms and potatoes are their appearances, textures, and general flavors. They are similar in that they both come in various shapes and sizes and are high in carbs. Here are three areas in which you can compare taro and potatoes:

1. 1. Appearance: The surface of the taro is brown with a unique ring pattern similar to tree bark. Once you peel it, the taro will either be cream-colored, white with a purple tint, or boast purple flecks. Regular potatoes typically come in shades of brown and pale red and yellow (though specialty varieties also include shades of indigo and violet) with pale flesh.
2. 2. Flavor: Taro can taste bland or mildly sweet and nutty. Potatoes are milder, with a buttery character that makes them a good base for more savory flavors.
3. 3. Origin: Taro (Colocasia esculenta) is a tropical plant native to southeastern Asia. The potato plant (Solanum tuberosum), native to the Americas, is a member of the nightshade genus that produces a starchy, edible tuber.

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