Ever since the Mariana's Mexican Market moved in next door to where we live, we've been trying all kinds of foods that we hadn't tried before. Case in point this root vegetable called Malanga Root. Ken saw people picking these up and buying them and asked me if I wanted to try it and I'm always up for trying something new. So he brought one home for us to try. It was only .69 cents for this and it's about as big as 3 medium size potatoes so one of them was enough to have as a side dish for dinner.
I looked up a few ways to cook it and mashed was my preferred way to try it the first time. So all you have to do is peel it and make sure to peel off any dark spots or discolored spots and then rinse it really well so you can hold on to it while cutting it into chunks because it will be slimy and hard to hold on to if you don't rinse it.
Then just boil it for about 40 minutes until fork tender, drain and mash. Add milk, butter, salt and pepper just like you would with mashed potatoes. It tasted so similar to mashed potatoes but it's a bit creamier when mashed than potatoes are. My daughter said that she wouldn't have even known it wasn't potatoes if I hadn't told her.
This is easy to make and it tastes really good. So now you have something new to try if you've never had it before.