Recipe: Sunchoke Soup

Digging up Sunchoke tubers is easy. They grow just below the surface and can ofen be pulled out in droves, without harming the flower patch at all. 

Sunchoke (Helianthus tuberosus), aka Jerusalem Artichoke, are a native plant that blooms in the fall. You will often find them on the side of the road, in fields and forests. The stems and leaves feel like sandpaper to the touch. Below the surface you'll find the knobby tubers.

These are delicious and were a staple in the diet of Native Americans and early settlers. This hardy, nutritious and delicious tuber can be dug from the ground year round, as long as the ground is not frozen solid. They store well in the refrigerator or root cellar (but actually store best right in the ground, so only try to store them for the months when the ground is actually frozen, around here that is January and February.)

The name "Jerusalem artichoke" is somewhat of a mystery, since they are not artichokes and are not from Jerusalem (it is a native American plant.) The theory is the Italian and Spanish word for sunflower is Girasol, which sort of sounds like "Jerusalem." And I suppose they do taste a bit like artichokes, though they are unrelated. Most people now have returned to calling them "Sunchoke" though you'll hear both names.

They can be eaten raw or cooked almost any way you can think of: roasted, fried, steamed, boiled, simmered.  

Here is a ver simple, easy way of making soup from Sunchoke tubers.

Recipe: Sunchoke Soup

Ingredients

• 1 onion, chopped
• 5 - 7 large sunchoke tubers, washed well, peeled half-heartedly (don't worry about getting all the peel off), and chopped (about 2 cups)
• water or stock to cover vegetables
• 1/4 cup cashews
• 3 Tbsp nutritional yeast (optional, good if not using vegetable stock)
• sea salt
• black pepper
• 1 Tbsp olive oil

Directions

1. Saute onion in olive oil.
2. Add sunchoke tubers and continue to saute, adding some salt, to bring out flavors.
3. Cover with water or stock and let simmer until sunchokes are soft, about 20 minutes.
4. Place in blender with cashews, nutritional yeast, sea salt and pepper. Whizz til smooth.
5. Reheat and add more salt and pepper if necessary.

This soup is simple and delicious!!!

Enjoy!

~ Melissa

October is A Month of Wild Abundance

Gem-Studded Puffballs

October is amazing when it comes to finding wild food!

The forests are full of delicious mushrooms including giant puffballs, pear shaped puffballs, gem studded puffballs, chicken mushrooms, hen of the woods, aborted entaloma (shrimp of the woods), blewits, honey mushrooms, lion's mane, ... what else am I forgetting? Parasol mushrooms, horse mushrooms, at a mushroom club walk on October 15 even chanterelles were found! Abundant!!

Just some of the mushrooms found at the Western PA Mushroom Club's walk on Saturday October 15

 Mushrooms aside (though it is difficult to put mushrooms aside - they are so delicious!), there are other delights found in October as well.

You might have noticed these gorgeous sunflowers blooming along roadsides or in fields and forests.

They are the native American sunchoke (aka Jerusalem artichokes.) Sunchoke (Helianthus tuberosus) are in the sunflower family, though this species is not known as much for its seeds as for its underground tubers (hence the species name tuberosus.)

sunchoke tubers

The tubers are knobby and funny looking, but they are delicious, abundant, easy to dig, and nutritious. They can be eaten raw, steamed, boiled, roasted, fried, simmered. Ways to make them include: roast them alongside other root vegetables like potatoes, sweet potatoes, parsnips, and carrots. Steam and mash like mashed potatoes. Saute with mushrooms (maybe some aborted entolomas or other wild mushroom). Make into a delicious soup (recipe will be posted tomorrow.)

black walnut in its green husk

Other October treats include nuts such as black walnut and hickory nuts. Now is definitely the time to get out and collect those, as well as acorns, which are falling off trees in droves this time of year. Unlike black walnut and hickory, most acorns need to be processed first to remove the bitter tanins. In the past I have boiled shelled acorns in repeated changes of water, but this year I am going to try a method described in Mike Krebill's new book Scout's Guide to Edible Wild Plants (due out November, 2016 and on which I was technical editor), where he blends the acorn meet in the blender, and then rinses the pulp until the bitterness is gone. I will report back in more detail once I actually try it.

kousa dogwood

You may have noticed these red balls hanging from some of your dogwood trees: this is Kousa dogwood, and the inside of this red fruit is soft, creamy and delicious.

Foraging is fun, and especially so in October! I hope you are able to get out there and find an abundance of wild food!

~ Melissa