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Jerusalem Artichoke Soup Recipe for Halloween - Trick or Treat?

lestroischenes by lestroischenes

Artichokes make a delicious autumn and winter soup

Every year at about this time of the year, (October - it's nearly Halloween!), I take myself down to the vegetable garden at our B&B in France, Les Trois Chenes, where I tend and crop my Jerusalem artichokes to make soup. Perfect for a Halloween supper.

I carry my basket and fork to harvest the tubers and a pair of scissors to cut the flowers. The tubers make a wonderful soup and the flowers decorate our dining room in a truly spectacular fashion. What could be better?

Never heard of a Jerusalem artichoke? You're not alone, although this old fashioned vegetable is enjoying a bit of a renaissance. Now why is this root just perfect for trick or treat?

All images ©Barbara Walton Please apply in writing for permission to use.

What is a Jerusalem artichoke?

Trick or treat?

Well, what it's not is an artichoke, nor is from Jerusalem! Its Latin name is Helianthus tuberosus, and you'll also find it called the sunroot, sunchoke, earth apple or topinambour. You won't be surprised to find that it's a member of the sunflower family if you just glance down this article a bit.

The edible part of the plant is the root which look a bit like ginger roots; long and knobbly. They are a fiddle to wash and peel, (trick), but the good news is that peeling isn't obligatory. Try with and without and decide if you can get away without taking the trouble. (As Phyllis Diller once said "They say housework won't kill you but why take the risk?")

You dig up these tasty roots in autumn and winter and they are just gorgeous roasted in the oven, used as potatoes and mixed in with them or made into soups.

Phyllis Diller is one scary comedienne!



Image: Courtesy of Allan Warren

Grow your own Halloween pumpkins

Its fun to DIY

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Ingredients

This is what you need:

- 700 g Jerusalem Artichoke
- 500 g Carrots
- 75 g butter
- 1 onion
- A handfull of lardons or bacon chopped into small pieces
- 1 clove garlic finely chopped
- 1 small green chilli chopped and de-seeded
- 100 g cheese (A hard cheese that you can grate like Emmental, Parmesan orCheddar)
- 1.5 litres stock
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Yoghurt, cream or creme fraîche to taste
- Parsely or similar to garnish

What you do

Treat

- Peel and chop the onion, and saute with the bacon in the melted butter until soft and add the garlic.
- Peel and chop the carrots. You can peel the artichoke roots and this keeps the colour of the soup bright, but I clean mine and leave the skin on so that I don't waste the peelings. Having a brush of some sort to scrub the tubers is handy.
- Chop the artichokes and put into cold, salted water to stop them discolouring.
- Add the carrots, artichokes and chilli to the onion and fry gently until soft.
- Add the cheese and stir.
-Then add the stock, salt and pepper and bring to the boil
- Simmer gently until the vegetables are soft.
- Puree until smooth.

To serve

Treat

Add a swirl of yoghurt or cream, something leafy and colourful, (I've added lamb's lettuce). For Halloween why not make a ghostly face with your cream? Float thinly sliced oranges on top for eyes? Have lots of warm, crusty bread to dip and decorate your table with orange or black napkins. This is where the candles come in and other vegetables make pretty Halloween table decorations too.

Read the FREE on-line Les Trois Chenes Recipe Book here.

Some pretty cute Halloween soup bowls here

I got to get myself some!

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The Jerusalem artichoke plant

Treat

The Jerusalem artichoke is a giant of a plant which grows much taller than you. It's also quite a keen competitor so once you have it you'll always have it. Now some might think that is a trick but not me. I love it when plants that I like persist even though I do little or nothing to encourage them! Who wouldn't want a plant you can eat, with flowers to cut and can kill off its own weeds?

Being so tall they are inclined to flop, but you can plant them at the back of the border, if you want them as flowers, or tie them up to keep them standing. Of course, after flowering, you cut them all down for the winter.

Fresh as a daisy

Treat

Or sunflowers in this case.

The flowers, as you can see, are glorious. Very like small, fine, sunflowers they bloom in France in late November and early October along with the dahlias and asters. I've put together a display here with Michaelmas daisies, golden rod and dill that I've allowed to go to seed.

Once cut, the artichoke flowers are not very long lived, but as the petals wilt you can pull them off and you're left with interesting button forms that will keep for quite a while.

They bring the sun right into the house and I just love them!

My All-time Best Vegetable Cookbook

She tells you everything you need to know!

Like so many things in life, hereby hangs a tale! As a struggling art student I used to eke out a living by doing a bit of cleaning for folk and I was given this Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book as a leaving present by my employers when I finally moved on. That was about 30 years ago now and I'm still using it. What a gift!
Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book (At Table)

Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book (At Table)

by: Jane Grigson

Amazon Price: $19.82 (as of 06/01/2012)Buy Now
List Price: $27.95

Not a huge tome, not hard to read. Organised alphabetically, it describes the vegetables, gives a potted history, tells you how to choose and prepare the vegetables and provides a selection of classic recipes.

What a treat! The perfect gift

The Sting in the Tail?

Well, they're not called 'fartichokes' for nothing!

I've sung the praises of the Jerusalem artichoke but there's got to be a catch and, well, it is one blast of a catch! Unfortunately, delicious though this veg is, it will fill you full of wind if you eat too much. I advise you very strongly to use artichokes sparingly, or to flavour potatoes and other vegetables. In my soup I've cut them with carrots, (thus giving the soup a warm colour), but you could experiment with other ingredients.

Image: Joseph Pujol (known as "Le_Petomane" - "the fart maniac") at the concert (ca. 1890). He was a French entertainer famous in Victorian times for being able to break wind at will Courtesy of Wikimedia

On the other hand, what better trick for Halloween?

Buy the tubers from Amazon

Eat or grow

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Buy the tubers on eBay

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My Latest New Love Vegetable Cookbook

I'm just so fickle!

Nigel Slater exceles in his ability to produce classy and nutritious dishes with a minimum of fuss and cost. On top of this he is a great story teller. Add gardening to this mix and what do you get? Tender!
Tender: A Cook and His Vegetable Patch

Tender: A Cook and His Vegetable Patch

by: Nigel Slater

Amazon Price: $21.74 (as of 06/01/2012)Buy Now

The very best in nutrition is growing your own top notch veg (that way you know that it's good) and then cooking fabulously tasty dishes that are really good for you. A tall order? Well, why not start here - at least it's a great read!

More great Halloween vegetable cookbooks

Only a click away

If you can't see what your looking for here, try this: 101 Cookbooks By The Celebrity Chef

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(or The Three Oaks)

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  • jimmyworldstar Dec 9, 2011 @ 3:16 pm | delete
    These Jerusalem artichokes (even if they really aren't) look like oversized potatoes or ginger roots. If I don't want to use lardon or bacon, can I just use butter or oil?
  • lestroischenes Nov 1, 2011 @ 4:12 am | delete
    Thank you all so much for your many likes and comments. It's so kind of you to take the time to visit.
  • ---Chazz Oct 31, 2011 @ 8:13 pm | delete
    Definitely have to try this. Sounds very different.
  • JziE Oct 31, 2011 @ 8:04 pm | delete
    wow, just knew that there are jerusalem version of artichoke
  • vikksimmons Oct 31, 2011 @ 12:47 pm | delete
    Nice angle for a Halloween lens. Congratulations on making it to the top 50 in the Happy Halloween contest.
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This Halloween Magazine page written by

lestroischenes

Les Trois Chenes is a stone farm house situated between Limoges and Angouleme, deep in the heart of rural France. We run painting holidays, a Bed and Breakfast... more »

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There's nothing so warming in winter or cooling in summer than a nice bowl of soup. And did you know that food in the form of soup is a good aid to losing weight? (Really!)

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