All plants /Ground /Chufa
Chufa
Cyperus esculentus, sedge family. Common in East and Central Texas.
At a glance
- What
- Small sweet underground tubers
- How
- Raw, roasted, or ground for a nut-milk
- When
- Fall
- Where
- Damp fields, ditches, sandy ground
- Value
- Starch, sugars, fat
Caution: Also called yellow nutsedge, a persistent 'weed' whose tubers are the food. Rinse the soil off well; they are safe and sweet. Never eat a wild plant on this guide's word alone. Confirm identity against several sources and learn the look-alikes first.
Identification
A grass-like sedge with a triangular stem; the prize is the cluster of pea-sized tubers on the roots, sweet and almond-like.
In the kitchen
Eat them raw once washed, roast them, or soak and blend them into horchata-style tiger-nut milk.
Photo: Marco Schmidt [1], CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Forages well with
Forage safely. Never eat a wild plant on this site's word alone. Confirm identity with several sources, learn the look-alikes, and when in doubt, leave it in the ground.