Cold Sunchoke Salad

If you were to visit my parents house, you'd see a beautiful yard where a constant battle is underway. On one side is my mother, the queen of flowers strewing the seeds of columbine, poppies, foxglove, and so many other varieties for a perfectly beautiful wild French flower garden. On the other side is my father the king of the structured, carefully laid-out raised-bed vegetable garden. In mid-summer it's hard to see the vegetables through the forest of colors.

The exception to all this is a very messy-looking bunch of tall weeds at one end of the yard, butting up against our neighbor's fence. Looking at all the flowers and vegetables, both carefully tended with weeds eradicated on first sight, you'd wonder why they've allowed those weeds to grow up. In fact, these weeds DO flower, but my father whacks off the buds before they have an opportunity to bloom.

These are sunchokes and our entire family covets them..

Also known as Jerusalem Artichokes, sunchokes are actually a member of the sunflower family, not artichokes, but they do taste like the later, which is why we love them.  These wonderful weeds create a tuber that looks more like fresh ginger than a potato and has an amazing flavor when cooked, very much like artichokes. In fact, I love them so much that when my father visited several weeks ago, he brought down a bag of them on the plane for me and I've been enjoying them for weeks.

That's another wonderful thing about sunchokes, their longevity. If left in a cool, dry, dark place, they will last through the winter. When needed, just plop them in a big bucket of water for a day or so and they plump right back up again. In addition to their wonderful flavor, sunchokes are high in potassium and iron and contain decent amounts of fiber, niacin, thiamine, phosphorus and copper. I honestly think it's one of the culinary world's best kept secrets.

The reason for this secret can be explained by both my husband (who doesn't like them) and the English planter, John Goodyer, who said of them in 1621, "Which way soever they be dressed and eaten, they stir and cause a filthy loathsome stinking wind within the body, thereby causing the belly to be pained and tormented...."

While you'll never see me address our family's dirty laundry in this blog, let the record show that when I eat the Cold Sunchoke Salad that I'm going to share below, I get to spend the night alone in our nice, big bed. Trust me, it's worth it.

Cold Artichoke Salad

1 pound sunchokes, thoroughly cleaned
1/2 large shallot, minced
1 tablespoon parsley, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
dash of garlic powder

In a medium saucepan, fill with water to cover the sunchokes and heat over medium heat until boiling. Simmer until knife pieced into sunchokes slides in easily, 20-25 minutes. Remove sunchokes from stove, drain and let cool.

Remove skin from sunchokes with a knife, being careful to keep as much as the "nubs" on the tubers as possible. Cut large pieces to 1" or so and place in a serving bowl. Add shallot and parsley.

In a small bowl, add oils, vinegar, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Whisk until combined. Pour over sunchokes and stir carefully to combine. Refrigerate until cold and serve.

As a disclaimer, when we make this salad, we just pour ingredients straight from the bottle or jar so the amounts are as close as I can get. You may need to add a little more of something to get the right flavor or consistency for you. In any event, enjoy (at least those who do the eating)!