Your Favourite Food Channel aka Healthy Yums

Earlier today I stopped at one of the local chain grocery stores here in Denmark called Netto (translates to Net... not very interesting, sorry) to escape the snow and cold. While there I saw quite a lot of root-like vegetables which seem to be very popular here. My personal opinion of root-like vegetables is one of mostly dislike. Apart from carrots, the occasional potato and ginger (although I think that's more of a spice then a vegetable), I try to steer clear of most roots due to bad experiences as a child (and adult actually). Take the beet for example: The only way I have ever had it is sliced and boiled which is not tasty at all (and I've heard it stains your teeth).

I decided while at the store that I'm going to find a good way to cook these stubborn veggies. So I brought home a 1.5 kg bag of beets and a 750g bag of mysterious roots that looked interesting (I passed up on the parsnips because we cooked those while in the UK over Christmas).

The mysterious root turned out to be the Jerusalem artichoke (commonly referred to as the Sunchoke); a tuber from a certain breed of Sunflower native to certain parts of the US (I had to come all the way to Denmark to find this out). The Sunchoke is a good source of potassium. It is also high in iron, fiber, niacin, thiamine, phosphorus and copper. The consistency has a likeness to that of the potato, but it is crunchier and sweeter with undertones of sunflower seed.
healthyyums found me an easy recipe for Sunchoke Chips which I modified slightly. After washing, I sliced the sunchokes thinly, laid them out on a baking sheet (with a bit of sunflower seed oil), salted lightly, and baked at 200ºC (about 400ºF) for approximately 20 minutes. The results were quite good and tasted very much like potato crisps/chips. I paired it with a bit of the Lucky 5's tomato sauce with great success. I still have quite a few Sunchokes left so I'll be incorporating them into future recipes... stay tuned.

healthyyums butts in: Firstly, I think sunchokes taste something in between a potato and a parsnip. Now secondly, I've discovered a theory online claiming that we can thank the French explorer Samuel de Champlain for the name 'Jerusalem artichoke'. He first encountered sunchokes in Massachusetts in 1605 and thought they tasted very much like artichokes. He sent some tubers back to France, and they started growing them successfully and were sold on Parisian streets. Oo la la! The word Jerusalem was thought to somehow come about from the Italian word for sunflower, 'girasole'. Think of the telephone game and how the word 'girasole' was passed down from ear to ear to ear to its final form of 'Jerusalem'. :o)

According to some, Jerusalem artichokes are also rich in inulin, a carbohydrate linked with good intestinal health (thanks to its prebiotic properties). For this reason, it is a good potato substitute for diabetics becaused the carbohydrates are stored in the form of inulin, which breaks down to fructose, the better sugar for diabetes. However, it can also produce flatulence, so beware.