I bought some at whole foods recently
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We finally got the courage to eat some of our harvest. My wife made a risotto with them (plus some lionās mane mushroom we had that we needed to use). The pieces werenāt much bigger than a centimeter cubed and never got soft, so we would probably cut them even smaller to get softer, but I actually liked the bit of residual firmness. It was topped with parsley, walnuts and some JA chips and served with a arugula salad. Super delicious. Weāll see how we react to them.
Here is the recipe she started from, although she made some changes, including making it vegan.
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That is great to know! I havenāt been willing to reduce the harvest of what Iāve grown by eating any of them but I did purchase some Jerusalem artichoke at a grocery store on a couple of occasions to try. The first time I did a side by side comparison between arracacha, the fartichokes and some peeled yucca. After cutting them into slices I covered them all in peanut oil and baked them. The JA got so soft that they werenāt enjoyable. The progression from firm and starchy yucca down to soft and sweet JA was interesting, with the arracacha falling directly between the two (definitely worth trying that root vegetable if you can find it). Oh, and the JA did not cause any distress amongst the three of us who enjoyed the meal.
A couple of weeks later I purchased more Jerusalem artichokes at the same place and they turned out identically after preparation, causing me to have some concern for the palatability of what Iām growing. Hopefully the grocery store here is selling a subpar variety compared to what friends gifted me to grow.
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interesting, i havent had this issue where they get super mushy! it may be how long theyre stored. as with most tubers the starches get slowly converted to sugars. I do leave the skin on usually, so that might make a difference in texture. My normal way is just sliced and roasted. nothing crazy.
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excited to hear how you handle them. Ive never had any trouble, but i know many do
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If you make them mushy, you can turn them into a yummy soup.
Try roasting small (1cm) pieces with avocado oil at 400 for 30-35 mins. They will crisp up.
@zendog that looks delicious! I love the risotto idea and will have to make that soon.
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Possibly I baked them to the soft stage and actually need to roughly double the bake time in order for them to get crispy. 
It doesnāt sound like my first choice 
but maybe Iāll give it a shot at some point.
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No discernible issues for me, but my diet is pretty high fiber and a lot of legumes so perhaps a well trained microbiome.
We had plenty of leftovers for dinner. This time with some toppings of tomato, avocado, celery micro greens and pickled jalapeƱos. I really enjoy a bunch of varied toppings with risotto to vary the texture and flavors as you go. It was wonderful comfort food after a lot of snow (sleet) shoveling today.
Iām pretty impressed with these humble little roots.
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yeah that is my sense as well, that most peoplewith issues dont eat much fiber in the first place. alternatively they eat them right after theyre dug up and I tend to store mine a little.
I love your sense of humor!
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I saw a decent recipe for JA soup that I will make but I have to wait for the next thaw to try it.
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Iād be interested in having that recipe as well.
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I looked and canāt find the exact recipe but here is the basic idea:
Sweat diced carrots, celery, and onion in olive oil for a few minutes. Then add peeled JA, diced garlic, and a peeled and chopped medium potato. Salt. Cover and let cook til outsides of JA/potato soften. Then add vegetable stock, bay leaf, and thyme. Simmer til all ingredients are fork tender. Remove bay leaf and add cracked pepper. Remove from heat and attack with immersion blender til smooth. Garnish with diced ham, possibly sauted mushrooms.
The recipe mentioned the addition of the potato balances the starches and helps the texture. It sounded right to me. I need it to thaw to dig up more JA to give some recipes a go.
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What an informative and intriguing thread!!! We tried sunchokes for the first time back in December when my sister sent me a container. I prepared them much like a potato and roasted them in the oven with potatoes and meat. They were wonderful, soft and sweet but gave us all horrible gas and gut cramps, except my dad. He apparently used to eat them raw back in Romania when he was a boy. I would love to grow a few different varieties but am new to them and the only place I can find them is on ebay. I noticed the fermentation topic and I wondered if you could ferment them then prep them like french fries? Or do a sweet ferment and make pastries with them? Or if they have a high sweetness can you use them to replace sugar in recipes or even extract sugar from them? Could the juice from their fermentation be used to make sourdough starter?
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If you want to take advantage of their sweetness, the inulin can be converted into fructose by cooking them in an acidic liquid. That could be water with lemon juice or vinegar. Generally this will turn a high percentage of the inulin into sugar, but still preserves a small bit of the inulin to benefit your gut microbes. Just not enough to make you gassy when eating it.
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The starch in Sunchokes is stored as inulin a fiber made up of a long chain of fructose sugars. Each freeze and thraw cycle converts some inulin to fructose which is why they sweeten during storage or are simply stored in ground and dug up when needed,
Inulin is a very popular prebiotic fiber because microbes love it. eg fartichokes.
In the absence of extra fructose in our diet. Both Inulin and fructose are good. Inulin because your gut microbes are going to consume it and turn it into fatty acids. and fructose because your liver is going to convert it to fatty acids.
Neither have any effect on your blood sugar.
When cooking sunchokes timing is important. you can not simply cook them sweet or crunchy. a lot depends on how much inulin conversion has already happend.
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When cooked in an acidic liquid, you actually can get really good inulin to fructose conversion within about half an hour. At this point they still have a nice firm texture. I prefer this over the older recommended method which is to slow cook for an exceptionally long period of time (resulting in mushy texture).
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Iāll have to try acid next time
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i have so many and the tubers are good sized but the gas!!! Iāve tried slow cook, wait until mid winter, freeze/thaw then slow cook, etc
Iāll try acidic cook next but Iām about to give up and leave them as doomsday fart food
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