Make your own Yacon Syrup Recipe

Homemade yacon syrup is a sweet healthy alternative to refined sweeteners. The yacon root is a perennial root vegetable that looks something like a sweet potato. Yacon root grows naturally in South America and is known for being both sweet and filling.

Yacon syrup is a super sweetener with powerful health benefits. When extracted and used in syrup form, yacon root is a low glycemic natural sweetener, meaning it doesn’t cause a spike in blood sugar.

This superfood is also a paleo-friendly natural sweetener. Yep, that’s right! This alternative natural sweetener can replace sugar in virtually anything

Yacon contains prebiotics which feed and help grow the microbiota in our guts - which helps our immune system hugely! When our gut microbiota are taken care of and are healthy, then we can optimally absorb the nutrients our body needs.
If we have gut issues with nutrients malabsorption, leaky gut or a bad imbalance of gut flora this takes a toll on a health. It affects our metabolism, hormone production, energy levels, sleep, immune system, etc.

So yacon can help:

• Boost your immunity
• Lower blood pressure
• Help regulate blood sugar
• Improve digestion
• Antifungal treatment
• Boosts liver health
• Supports weight loss
• Keeps 'unhealthy' cholesterol down
• May help prevent cancer

We love pouring it over waffles or pancakes, it has a delicious malt syrup taste.

It's really easy to make yacon syrup... The syrup is made by reducing yacon juice until most of the water has evaporated and you are left with a thick, dark syrup resembling molasses. You need a lot of yacon to make the syrup: we got 2 jars of syrup from 1 large pot of juice!

Method:

• Juice your yacon tubers (the roots that look more like kumara, not the bubbly-looking roots that are used to replant next season) through a juicer until you have a large pot of juice.
• Simmer your juice slowly until the sryup boils down significantly; sitting it on a warm fire top would be perfect.
• Stir occasionally (increasing the frequency near the end) while it reduces. Scum will start to rise to the top and this can be scooped off with a spoon.
• You'll know it's ready when you see small bubbles in the syrup (like what you'd see when boiling a sugar syrup). DON'T go past this point, you'll end up with hard toffee - from experience haha!
• Once the syrup has reduced to a consistency with small bubbles, pour it into sterilised jars.
  

And that's it, it is super simple! Use as replacement sweetener, over pancakes and waffles or yoghurt, yum!