What is Cassava?

Answer 1

Cassava is a shrubby, tropical, perennial plant that is not well known in the temperate zone. For most people, cassava is most commonly associated with tapioca. The plant grows tall, sometimes reaching 15 feet, with leaves varying in shape and size. The edible parts are the tuberous root and leaves. The tuber (root) is somewhat dark brown in color and grows up to 2 feet long.
Cassava thrives better in poor soils than any other major food plant. As a result, fertilization is rarely necessary. However, yields can be increased by planting cuttings on well drained soil with adequate organic matter. Cassava is a heat-loving plant that requires a minimum temperature of 80 degrees F to grow. Since many cultivars are drought resistant, cassava can survive even during the dry season when the soil moisture is low, but humidity is high.
Around the world, cassava is a vital staple for about 500 million people. Cassava's starchy roots produce more food energy per unit of land than any other staple crop. Its leaves, commonly eaten as a vegetable in parts of Asia and Africa, provide vitamins and protein. Nutritionally, the cassava is comparable to potatoes, except that it has twice the fiber content and a higher level of potassium.
The cassava used in Indies International Cassava Chips is known by the Latin name Manihot Utilisima. It is grown in the farm lands surrounding the town of Bogor in West Java, Indonesia, about 37 miles south of Jakarta, Indonesia's capital city.
In Indonesia, cassava is used in a variety of food products, the same way potatoes are used in the U.S. They can be used as vegetables in dishes, grated to make pancakes, dried and ground into tapioca flour, or sliced and made into snack chips.

Here is a link to the picture of cassava

http://food.oregonstate.edu/images/fruitveg/yuccaroot_cassava/yucca387.jpg

Answer 2

The root of Cassava is a starchy tubor, (sort of like a potato). It is used in cooking and most often associated with tapioca pudding. The root can ground and can be made into a flour which breads are made from. It is also used as a thickening agent.

Answer 3

Cassava or tapioca is the tuberous,starchy root of the tapioca plant,a woody shrub belonging to the eurpjorbiaceae family,the tubers are long & taper at both ends, several are borne on a single plant,they arise from the base of the shrub & splay out rather like the fingers of a hand.Tapioca eaten raw is poisionous,it has to either be cooked or sun dried before it is consumed.Tapioca chips,taste rather like potato crisps & are a favourite snack in areas where tapioca is grown.

Answer 4

In Sierra Leone the leaves are edible when prepared well. In our local dialect (Mende) it is called sakitomboi the roots look brownish
it can be used to prepare varieties of food and recipe for a meal as well like pancakes or rich-cake, cassava meat pie, cassava chin-chin,
mashed and parched into Gari, foo-foo, starch and grind into tapioca flour, or sliced and made into snack chips.

Answer 5

The cassava or manioc (Manihot esculenta) is a woody shrub of the Euphorbiaceae (spurge family) that is extensively cultivated as an annual crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy tuberous root, a major source of carbohydrate.

Cassava is called mandioca, aipim, or macaxeira in Portuguese, mandio in Guaraní, maniok in Afrikaans, yuca or mandioca in Spanish, mogho in Gujarati, kappa in Malayalam, singkong or ubi kayu in Indonesian, tugi in Ilocano, balinghoy in Tagalog, maniok in German, Danish and Czech, manyok in Haitian Creole, lumu in Kichwa, and manioc in French.

It is also known as tapioca.

Answer 6

Cassava is actually tapioca and one can get them in any asian shops

Answer 7

I believe that it is a root and it is used in Brazilian dishes

Answer 8

it is the root of a yucca plant. It is what tapioca comes from