The influence of different cooking regimes such as boiling, oven, microwave and hot-air drying on the retention of total phenolics (TP), total carotenoids (TC) and in vitro antioxidant capacity (AC) for three colored arracacha roots was studied. Continuous losses of TP, TC and AC during the course of the different cooking processes were observed. Boiling at 99.5° C for 20 min turned to be the best method to cook this root due to a high retention of TP, TC and AC in comparison to oven cooking at 200° C for 45 min and microwave cooking at 800 W for 5 min. During boiling, chlorogenic and caffeic acids and derivatives remained relatively stable. The drying temperature was negatively correlated to the residual content of TP and AC for the yellow and cream arracacha roots, but for the cream/purple arracacha variety, blanching preserved the TP and AC. Significant losses in chlorogenic and caffeic acids and derivatives were mainly observed during hot-air drying. These results suggested that TP are responsible to a large extent of the AC displayed by arracacha root during the different evaluated cooking regimes. © The Author(s) 2011.