Jerusalem Artichoke Soup

I have such mixed feelings about the fall.  The colour of the leaves is so beautiful.  You get the days that are great for sweater weather (my favourite).  But, the days start getting shorter and then the time change hits and it eventually becomes dark by around 5pm here.  Don't even get me started on the cold weather, snow, freezing rain, etc*.  So, for now, I'm trying to squeeze in as much tree-gazing time as possible.  

Last week we got together with friends at the Arboretum. It's an area in Ottawa, on the Experimental Farm (land that is used for agricultural research) with a variety of trees.

In addition to some cute knitted sock and preserves, our friends gave us a bag of jerusalem artichokes that they were given from a neighbouring plot at their community garden.  

After looking around at various recipes that included jerusalem artichokes, I decided to make this soup recipe from Simply Recipes.  The only adaption we made is that we didn't have as many artichokes and we added two carrots.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 2 large garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 pounds jerusalem artichokes, peeled and cut into chunks
• 1 quart chicken stock (we used vegetable stock)
• Salt and black pepper to taste

METHOD

1 Heat the butter in a soup pot over medium-high heat and cook the onions and celery until soft, about 5 minutes. Do not brown them. Add the garlic and sauté for 1 minute. Sprinkle with salt.

2 Add the jerusalem artichokes and the chicken stock to the pot and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low, and simmer, covered, until the jerusalem artichokes begin to break down, 45 minutes to an hour.

3 Using an immersion blender or upright blender, purée the soup. If using an upright blender, fill the blender bowl up only to a third of capacity at a time, if the soup is hot, and hold down the lid while blending. Alternately, you can push the soup through the finest grate on a food mill, or push it through a sturdy sieve. Add salt to taste.

Sprinkle with freshly grated black pepper to serve.

Verdict: The soup made for a nice warm lunch.  With the addition of the carrots, I found the soup to be a bit sweeter than I expected.  But, everyone enjoyed it.  For me, the most enjoyable part was being able to discover a bit about this jerusalem artichokes.

R's mom made these biscuits to go with the soup.  I asked her for the recipe and she said, "oh fit" and walked away.  I took this to mean that she doesn't have a recipe.  But I know she used flour, cream of tartar and baking soda.  Not sure what else.  

* I know I should talk about many of the great winter activities in Ottawa (canal, cross-country skiing, Winterlude, etc.), but for now I'm just going to wallow in a bit of post-summer pity.