Chef Lupita
Cebollas Moradas en Escabeche Yucatecas
Yucatán's pink pickled red onions, blanched and steeped in naranja agria with allspice, charred habanero, and oregano yucateco. The Peninsula's table garnish, in every fonda from Mérida to Tizimín.
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Xec Yucateco
Created by
Yucatán's Hanal Pixán fruit salad, jícama matchsticks shuffled with mandarina, naranja dulce, toronja, and naranja agria, finished with chile piquín and cilantro. Mayan in origin, peninsular in identity.
Salads
Mexican
Holiday
Special Occasion
Picnic
25 min
Active Time
0 min cook•25 min total
Yield8 servings
Xec is from Yucatán. The name is Mayan, not Spanish. It is pronounced shek and it means shuffled, which is exactly the gesture you use to make it: hands in the bowl, lifting and turning jícama matchsticks through citrus until every piece has met the juice.
This is a Hanal Pixán dish. Hanal Pixán is the Maya Day of the Dead, observed across the peninsula from late October through early November, and xec appears on altars and family tables because the season is right: mandarina, naranja dulce, toronja, and naranja agria are all in the markets at the same time, and the jícama is at its sweetest. A fruit salad in Yucatán is not lettuce-and-dressing. It is built on jícama, citrus, and chile, and the dressing is the juice of the fruit itself. No oil. No sugar. The acidity of the naranja agria is what holds the whole bowl together, and that is the ingredient you should not skip.
The chile piquín on top is small and hot and grows wild across the peninsula. Mayan cooks have been seasoning fruit with chile and salt since long before the Spanish arrived. The combination of sweet, sour, salty, and spicy in a single spoonful is not a modern food trend. It is one of the oldest flavor structures in the Americas.
I learned this version from a senora in Mérida who set out a clay bowl of xec for her grandmother on the Hanal Pixán altar every year. She told me the trick was to cut the jícama by hand, never on a mandoline. The mandoline cuts too thin and the jícama loses its crunch under the citrus. Cada estado, su propia cocina. This one is Yucatán's, and the peninsula does not share it.
The word 'xe'ec' comes from Yucatec Maya and literally means 'mixed' or 'shuffled,' a reference to the technique of combining the ingredients by hand. The dish is documented as a pre-Columbian preparation of jícama, native to Mexico and cultivated by Mesoamerican peoples for at least 4,000 years, dressed with the juice of bitter native citrus relatives and seasoned with chile piquín, salt, and culantro (the Maya cousin of cilantro). The Spanish introduction of mandarina, sweet orange, grapefruit, and the sour Seville orange in the 16th century gave xec the citrus palette it carries today, but the structure of the dish, jícama plus acid plus chile plus salt, remained Maya. Xec sits prominently on Hanal Pixán altars during the late October observance, when peninsular families honor their dead with the foods of the season.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
jícama
Quantity
1 large (about 1.5 pounds)
peeled and cut into matchsticks
mandarinas
Quantity
3
peeled and segmented, membranes removed
naranjas dulces (sweet oranges)
Quantity
2
peeled and segmented, membranes removed
toronja (grapefruit)
Quantity
1 large
peeled and segmented, membranes removed
fresh naranja agria juice (sour orange)
Quantity
1/4 cup
fresh cilantro
Quantity
1 bunch
leaves and tender stems, roughly chopped
chile piquín, ground
Quantity
2 teaspoons
sea salt
Quantity
1 teaspoon, plus more to taste
lime halves (optional)
Quantity
for serving
ground chile piquín for the table (optional)
Quantity
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| jícamapeeled and cut into matchsticks | 1 large (about 1.5 pounds) |
| mandarinaspeeled and segmented, membranes removed | 3 |
| naranjas dulces (sweet oranges)peeled and segmented, membranes removed | 2 |
| toronja (grapefruit)peeled and segmented, membranes removed | 1 large |
| fresh naranja agria juice (sour orange) | 1/4 cup |
| fresh cilantroleaves and tender stems, roughly chopped | 1 bunch |
| chile piquín, ground | 2 teaspoons |
| sea salt | 1 teaspoon, plus more to taste |
| lime halves (optional) | for serving |
| ground chile piquín for the table (optional) | for serving |
Equipment Needed
- •Sharp chef's knife for the jícama matchsticks
- •Cutting board with a juice groove for the citrus supremes
- •Wide ceramic or clay bowl for shuffling
- •Citrus squeezer for the naranja agria
Instructions
- 1
Cut the jícama
Peel the jícama with a sharp knife. The brown skin is fibrous, the layer just under it is too. Take both off. Cut the white flesh into slabs about a quarter inch thick, then stack the slabs and cut them into matchsticks. You want pieces with bite. The jícama is the body of this salad and limp slices will not hold up to the citrus.
A good jícama is heavy for its size, firm, with no soft spots. If you press a thumb into the skin and it gives, leave it at the mercado. The flesh inside will be woody. - 2
Segment the citrus
Peel the mandarinas, naranjas dulces, and toronja. Cut off the top and bottom of each, stand it on a cutting board, and slice the peel and white pith away in strips, following the curve of the fruit. Hold each peeled fruit over a bowl and cut between the membranes to release each segment clean. Catch the juice that drips. That juice goes into the salad.
- 3
Press the naranja agria
Cut the naranja agria in half and squeeze a quarter cup of juice. Naranja agria is what does the work of vinegar in Yucatecan cooking. It is not a sweet orange and it is not a lime. The flavor sits between bitter, sour, and floral and there is no perfect substitute. If you absolutely cannot find one, mix two parts fresh lime juice with one part sweet orange juice and a splash of grapefruit juice. It is a compromise, not an upgrade.
- 4
Shuffle the salad
In a wide ceramic bowl, combine the jícama matchsticks, the citrus segments with their caught juice, and the naranja agria juice. The Mayan word xe'ec means shuffled, and that is the action. Use your hands or two wooden spoons to lift and turn the ingredients gently. You are not stirring. You are shuffling so every matchstick of jícama meets the citrus.
Do not break the citrus segments. Whole supremes hold their shape on the plate and give the salad its visual identity. Crushed citrus turns the bowl into juice. - 5
Season and rest
Sprinkle the salt evenly across the top, then add the chopped cilantro. Shuffle once more. Taste a piece of jícama with a piece of toronja. If the salad tastes shy, add a pinch more salt or another splash of naranja agria. Let it sit for ten minutes at room temperature so the salt draws the juice out of the jícama and the citrus has time to settle into the matchsticks.
- 6
Dust with chile and serve
Just before serving, dust the top with the ground chile piquín. Do this at the table if you can. The red against the white jícama and the segmented citrus is the visual signature of xec and it is one of the colors you will see on every Hanal Pixán altar across the peninsula. Set extra chile piquín and lime halves on the table for each diner to adjust. Eat with a spoon, cold, from a clay bowl. Así se hace y punto.
Chef Tips
- •Naranja agria is non-negotiable for the right flavor. Look for it in Latin American markets labeled as sour orange, bitter orange, or Seville orange. If your mercado does not carry it fresh, the bottled Goya naranja agria is acceptable. Lime alone is the wrong substitution because it lacks the floral bitterness that defines Yucatecan cooking.
- •Chile piquín is the chile of the peninsula. Tiny, red, and hot, sold ground at any Yucatecan market. If you cannot find piquín, use chile de arbol ground fine. Do not use Tajín. Tajín is a commercial seasoning blend with lime and dehydrated chile, and it is not what a senora in Mérida puts on her xec.
- •Xec is best eaten the day it is made, within two hours of shuffling. The jícama starts to lose its crunch after that and the citrus loses its brightness. It does not refrigerate well overnight and it does not make ahead. Cut everything in advance separately, combine at the last possible moment.
Advance Preparation
- •The jícama can be cut into matchsticks up to four hours ahead and held in a bowl of cold water in the refrigerator to keep it crisp. Drain and pat dry before shuffling.
- •The citrus can be segmented up to two hours ahead and held in its own juice, refrigerated.
- •Do not combine the ingredients until ten minutes before serving. Xec is a last-minute salad and the texture suffers if it sits.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 195g)
Calories
85 calories
Total Fat
0 g
Saturated Fat
0 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
0 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
290 mg
Total Carbohydrates
20 g
Dietary Fiber
6 g
Sugars
11 g
Protein
2 g
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