Cold-Weather Foraging: Sunchokes (With Pickled Sunchokes and Mushrooms Recipe)

Reader Contribution by Leda Meredith
Published on December 20, 2013
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Sunchoke, also called Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus) is a native North American root vegetable that is now cultivated on five continents. It is a delicious ingredient raw or cooked. Except when it’s not. With this vegetable, timing is everything.

I’m not sure how the powers that be get cultivated sunchokes to be sweet year-round. But with the wild ones, it’s a different story. Before they’ve gotten the chill treatment from at least a couple of frosts, sunchokes sometimes have a really funky, unpleasant aftertaste. The reason is a starch called inulin. Cold weather or refrigeration turns inulin into fructose, which is why sunchokes taste sweeter after cold weather.

Right now, after a few frosts (in my area at least), wild sunchokes are perfect. At this time of year they’ve got a subtle sweetness that matches the earthy overtones of their flavor. Raw, they are crunchy — something like a cross between jicama and water chestnut — and great on salads. They are also great cooked. Sunchokes cook more quickly than potatoes but can be used in similar ways. And they make interesting pickles.

Another good reason to wait until sunchokes have gone through a chill is that the inulin in sunchokes can cause even more digestive gas than beans do. Fructose doesn’t have the same effect, so once the inulin is converted to fructose by cold weather, this isn’t as much of an issue.

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