There's a thread going on elsewhere about this, but I wanted to spread the word over here.

If you peel, core, and slice CHAYOTE (aka christophene or merliton), then parboil the slices, you can bake them up like an apple pie and the resemblance is remarkable. But it's a squash, and way way lower in carbs.

The flavor is very mild, so you need to add sourness and of course cinnamon, sweetness, and BUTTER. I discovered tonight that tamarind paste is freakin' perfect for adding tartness and brown color. (I haven't looked up the carb damage for the tamarind paste, though, and suspect it's high.)

Here's a site with some other names and a picture: http://www.foodsubs.com/Squashsum.html . It's the second one down, the cute one that looks like what happens to a sock puppet when you make a fist.

Helpful hint: the PLU code for chayote is 4761 so if there's no sticker on the chayote and the cashier at your market can't find it on the list, just have him or her punch that in. (This very well may happen; I haven't yet encountered a cashier who knew what the things were!)

Thanks Binki....I had tried Jicama which does a pretty good job but takes a LONG time to cook. I have always loved to have 'cinammon apples' as side dish in the pre low-carb days. I'm thinking about making 'apple' tarts with this for a mini-desert. Or I can experiment with fried 'apples' a Southern delicacy. By the way, what is tamarind paste and where do you find it?

I got it in an Indian market. It looks like this:


You definitely have to cook chayote longer than apples. I parboiled mine in water with some lemon juice and a cinnamon stick, then drained and stewed until tender with lemon juice, tamarind, cinnamon, nutmeg, sweetener, and of course butter!

Mmmmm. And now it's all gone and I have to make more. Good thing it's a vegetable!

Well thank you!! May have to try chayote "applesauce" myself.... I make a big crockpot full of Jicama about every two weeks... a cup of water, diced Jicama and lots of cinnamon, apple pie seasoning, and Gingerbread syrup (SF Davinci)... also a few splashes of the French Vanilla SF Davinci syrup.... cook it for a minimum of 36 hours on low.... even THEN it does not really get soft as apples... but tastes SO GOOD.... and I freeze several containers of it... also take a batch and pulse in my Magic Bullet... comes out EXACTLY like applesauce.... I use it in bowl muffin cakes, pumpkin cake, in my flaxseed meal "oatmeal", etc.... really, really tasty... but perhaps the chayote would not take as long to cook???

Oh, not at all. I parboil it for maybe 15 minutes and simmer with the seasonings and butter and stuff for..hm, maybe half an hour, if I'm not cooking it in a pie. I kind of let the sauce cook down a bit. Not sure how this would translate to crockpot cooking, but surely not 36 hours!

One of the sweeteners I use is Polydextrose, which I highly recommend for its goo-giving properties...

Nutrition Per 200 grams (a medium sized chayote) - serving size is 100 grams:
Calories 50
Total fat 1 gram
Carbohydrates 11 grams
Dietary fiber 6 grams
Net Carbs 5 grams
Protein 2 grams

Nutrition Per Cup Jicama:
Calories 50
Total fat .2 gram
Carbohydrates 11.4 grams
Dietary fiber 6.4 grams
Net Carbs 5 grams
Protein 1 gram