Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Cook's Guide entry for Arrowroot along with all the Arrowroot containing recipes presented on this site, with 34 recipes in total.

This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives a listing of all the Arrowroot recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain Arrowroot as a major wild food ingredient.

Arrowroot is the name of the easily-digestible starch derived from the rhizomes (rootstock) of West Indian arrowroot plants (Maranta arundinacea). The plant itself is chiefly cultivated in the West Indies (Jamaica and St. Vincent), Australia, Southeast Asia, and South and East Africa. The roots themselves are dug when they are about twenty years old and when ground they contain about 23% starch.

Arrowroot is an excellent thickening agent and is used in sauces, juices and syrups. When heated the starch turns to jelly and so thickens the liquid. Its great advantage over cornflour is that it's completely tasteless (whereas cornflour can need cooking to get rid of its 'raw' taste) and gives a clear finish when used to thicken certain soups, fruit syrups or sauces.

In cooking it should always be used as a slurry (where dry arrowroot is mixed at a 1:1 ratio with cold water) before being tipped into and mixed with the food to be thickened.

As a rule of thumb, to thicken 300ml of sauce (gravy or custard, for example) you will need 2 tbsp arrowroot (mix this with 2 tbsp cold water to get a slurry). If you are making a glaze then you will need just 1 tbsp arrowroot in 1 tbsp cold water per 300ml of the glaze.

It is often compared with cornflour (cornstarch) that's also used in a similar manner. Arrowroot has the advantages of being totally flavourless and is colourless when cooked. As such it can be used as a thickener for clear soups and broths. It is also acid resistant (unlike cornflour) and can be used to thicken sharp fruit-based sauces, stews and jams. It's ideal for using as a thickener to fruit pie fillings.