Roasted Sunchokes & Other Good Stuff

April 03, 2017

Roasted Sunchokes & Other Good Stuff

I went to the Union Square Greenmarket last week in search of life.

When I say life, I mean lively, local, seasonal ALIVE produce that I can't find anywhere by me (20 miles from Manhattan).
Something that is growing NOW.

I know I can go to a Whole Foods and probably find some interesting stuff, but what fun would that be? then you wouldn't let me complain to you about living in NJ during the lean months. :)

There wasn't much at the market yet except for beautiful breads and cheeses and pastries........and this guy selling horseradish root and every flavor of horseradish you can think of (cranberry; beet; creamy; BBQ; cockail sauce and mustard), so I bought 2 jars of pickles w/ horseradish, the BEST pickles on the planet. SO GOOD!

HOLY SCHMITT! these were good!

I didn't find watermelon radish, or ramps or asparagus or even a stalk of rhubarb, but I did find beautiful root vegetables.
Of every variety.

I came home w/ 3 types of beets, colorful spring carrots and tons of potatoes.
One woman was selling perfect tiny sunchokes for $6. per lb., so I bought them.

I have only had sunchokes maybe 3 times in my life......and I loved them. They are also known as Jerusalem Artichokes, but have nothing to do w/ artichokes, so just call them sunchokes, so you don't get confused.
They are actually a tuber in the sunflower family (to confuse you more).

These little babies were small and pretty. I didn't even need to peel them.
A crazy lady at the market told me to eat them raw, they were good for the little "things swimming around in my tummy". I think she meant the good bacteria? I don't know, it's NY, everyone has some crazy story to tell me (and probably some bacteria too).

I decided to roast the sunchokes for 25 minutes w/ olive oil and kosher salt, along w/ the heirloom carrots and Peruvian blue potatoes that I bought at the market......