Smashed Sunchokes

Move over french fries, there’s a new favorite side in town—smashed sunchokes. Also known as Jerusalem artichokes, these tasty little morsels are going to rock your world.

 

Smashed what?

Sunchokes, or also known as Jerusalem artichokes are a tuber—root vegetable. According to Lakewinds Food Coop Sunchokes are the root of a type of sunflower plant native to eastern North America. Well that’s cool, a plant native to North America? Can I eat more of that please! Oh how I would love to grow these gems in my garden!

You should be able to find sunchokes at your local grocery store or farmers market. They tend to be carried seasonally at my local Natural Grocers from around late January through March. One of my favorite parts of shopping at Natural Grocers is you can request for the store to carry different items. This year I didn’t see sunchokes, so I simply asked the produce manager, and you know what? They were there the following week!

Sunchokes are a little strange looking—think screaming Mandrakes for all the Harry Potter fans out there. Or I had a man at the grocery store the other day ask why I was buying so much ginger (well, I am probably guilty of that too, but I only had sunchokes in my basket on this occasion). Don’t be discouraged by their dreary looks, sunchokes taste amazing—I would describe them as a cross between a potato and an artichoke and 100% delicious. You can eat them raw, but my favorite way to prepare them is smashed!

The Nutritional Side of Sunchokes

As a root vegetable, sunchokes are obviously good for you. But these little morsels are full of some extra good for you things. Here we go, let’s nerd out and look at the nitty gritty—according to the USDA one cup of sun chokes contains 18% of your daily recommendation of potassium, 9% of fiber, 6% of protein, and a whopping 28% of your daily intake of iron. Take that spinach! Also, sunchokes are a natural plant based prebiotic. Say what? I’m going to fully admit I had no idea sunchokes were a prebiotic before researching their nutritional benefits. My mind was kind of blown when realizing how good these delicious veggies are for your gut. Check out the info about the inulin content in sunchokes from Livestrong.com:

Most of the carbohydrates in sunchokes are in the form of inulin. Inulin acts as a prebiotic, providing a source of food for beneficial probiotic organisms in your body. Probiotics may help improve your immune function, produce vitamins, lower your cholesterol and prevent disease-causing bacteria from multiplying. Consuming prebiotics may be an easier way to increase the probiotic organisms in your body than taking probiotic supplements, because you don’t have to worry about them surviving the digestive process like you would with probiotics. A study published in the “British Journal of Nutrition” in 2010 found that drinking fruit and vegetable juice shots that contained inulin from sunchokes increased the amount of certain types of probiotic bacteria in the body.

This is truly a tasty food that fuels your body with whole food goodness. Now you may be wondering how do I cook these darn knobby looking things?

 

How to Cook Sun Chokes

Although it takes a little time, making sun chokes is really a simple process. First, fill a medium size saucepan halfway with water and crank the heat up to high. Next, wash the sunchokes and cut off any spots that look unappealing. No need to peel the sunchokes, the skins are thin and good for you too. Toss the sunchokes in the pot of water and cook them for about 40 minutes at medium-high heat. If you have larger sunchokes, like larger than a kiwi, increase the cooking time by 5 minutes. If you have smaller size sunchokes you can probably get away with less cooking time, check them with a fork at around 30-35 minutes.

Next comes my favorite part. Hope you are ready to get rid of some pent up anger! Once the sunchokes are tender and pass the fork test. Remove them from the pot of water and place them on a cutting board. Take your frying pan and give them a good smash (hence the name). The goal here is to flatten them a little bit, not to mutilate them. Think flat like a latke, not hash browns. Rinse off the bottom of your fry pan if it got a little dirty and then add about 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the pan, pop it on the stove and kick the heat up to medium-high. Once the oil has warmed, about 1-2 minutes, add the sunchokes. Then generously season the sunchokes with dried thyme, salt and pepper. Let them cook for about 5 minutes until golden brown, flip and then season this side as well. Cook the second side for an additional 5 minutes or so adjusting your heat as necessary and then serve warm. I love to dip these in a little green herby cilantro parsley sauce, but my kids vote for some ketchup. Find your favorite dipping sauce. Yum!

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