Sunchoke and Asparagus Salad Herb Dressing
Mise En Place - two veggies and herb dressing ingredients are ready to go!
Most people do not know what sunchokes are but they heard of Jerusalem artichokes. This was me! Sunchokes happen to be a new fave of mine. When learned more about these ginger looking root vegetables - thanks to Divya Alter my cooking mentor. Here’s why: they look like. ginger root as I mentioned but bakes and tastes like ‘sweet’ white potatoes, and the best part - they are very low starchy root veggies. A win win in my culinary world.
Here’s the scoop on sunchokes. They’re little tuber root vegetables. They were cultivated in Virginia in the 1500s and reached Europe in the 1600s thanks to the French explorer Samuel de Champlain. He sent them to France of course to taste what he thought was similar to the taste as a Jerusalem artichoke. But they are not the same. These beauties (gnarly knobbed roots) were known as the Canadian and French potatoes.
So here’s the caveat: as a health coach and having a deep passion to learn about food and it’s content and benefits the sunchokes have a glitch, kind of. They can cause gas from it’s inulin. Our digestive system might have a hard time digesting this root veggie although the bacteria in our colon thrives on inulin. Go figure! So where do we go from here??? Unlike other root veggies, I keep sunchokes in the fridge - the cold is a game-changer and even though it grows in the fall and winter it’s best to harvest in Spring - cheers to an Ayurvedic spring and summer root veggie dish. Pretty cool!
Benefits:
inulin is great for diabetics as it has natural fructose
nourishes the lungs
supports the liver
treats constipation
minerals: iron, potassium, phosphorus
Vegan
2 cups sunchokes or parsnips - scrubbed clean and chopped in 1 inch pieces
1 bunch asparagus - trim ends and cut spears 2 inches long
Instructions:
-steam the sunchokes or parsnips in a steamer for 10 minutes
-place on serving dish
-steam asparagus for 5 minutes and dip in cold water to refresh, drain well. and add to the sunchokes or parsnips on your dish
Herb Dressing
1 tsp olive oil
1 tbsp lime or lemon juice
1 tbsp ginger juice from the ginger root - grate and squeeze the juice out
1/4 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp rosemary
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp nutmeg
Fresh herbs rock!
Instructions:
-whisk all the herb dressing ingredients in a small bowl
-pour over vegetables
-let the dressing and vegetables marinate for 5 minutes
-serve at room temperature
Genia’s Spoon Me Corner: Sunchokes are hard to peel as they grow like a ginger root - with lots of knobs. Therefore, I do not peel the root veggie - I scrub it clean with a TAWASHI - a scrubbing brush with hard bristles made of steel and metal. They originated from Japan. It’s basically a hard sponge that gets the dirt off of vegetables and fruit. Keep the peel with a tawashi! The peel has loads of nutrients - eat and enjoy your produce with peels! You can purchase on-line. They are fairly inexpensive.
Rooty Sunny Love,
Genia