Roasted Mushroom & Sunchoke Bisque

Last week, we got Jerusalem artichokes, also known as sunchokes, in our basket.  Neither Cody nor I had ever heard of them, so I spent awhile googling sunchokes & recipes.  I learned a lot, but didn’t find many recipes.  Luckily, one of the few recipes turned out to be delicious!

Sunchokes are the tubers of a species of sunflower.  They’re pretty similar to potatoes, but they don’t contain starch (so they’re lower carb than potatoes).  But they do produce inulin, which can’t be digested by humans… so if you eat too many sunchokes, you can end up with gas or stomach pain.  Apparently this bisque dilutes the inulin enough to prevent these side effects.

This soup was a delicious blend of smokey flavors.  Seriously good!

Adapted from All Recipes

Ingredients:

• 2 lb sunchokes, scrubbed & sliced 1/3 inch thick
• 1 large potato, diced
• 6 cloves garlic
• 2 tb olive oil, divided
• sea salt & ground black pepper to taste
• 8 oz mushrooms, sliced thickly
• 2 tb butter
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 2 c water
• 6 c chicken broth

Directions:

• Toss the sunchokes, potatoes, and garlic with 1 tb olive oil in a large bowl.  Season with salt & pepper to taste. Spread the mixture in a single layer on a baking sheet.
• Toss the mushrooms with 1 tb olive oil in a separate bowl.  Spread in a single layer on a second baking sheet.
• Bake the potato mixture for 20 minutes at 425.  Put the mushrooms in the over after the 20 minutes are up.  Bake mushrooms & potatoes for 25 minutes, or until potatoes are soft.  Remove both baking sheets from oven & set aside.
• Melt the butter in a large pot over medium low heat.  Saute the onion until soft, about 7-10 minutes.
• Stir the potato mixture & mushrooms into the pot.  Add water & 1 tsp of sea salt.  Allow to simmer for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Stir the chicken broth into the mixture.  Cover the pot & allow the flavors to blend for 20 minutes.
• Blend the soup- either pour into a blender in batches & blend before transferring to another pot, or use a stick blender & puree in the pot.