Sunchoke-Mushroom Bisque

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and honestly, that's what this is. To any ATL readers I apologize for the duplication but the post on Eat It Atlanta looked so good I had to try it. His post is in video form and is very well done, where in the world does he find those background songs? His is far more entertaining than mine will be but in any case, the soup is really good.  And ATTENTION all my favorite vegetarian type people, this is an easy hearty veggie soup that will feed you for a week.

A note about sunchokes. They are also known as Jerusalem artichokes and are rooty looking things kind of nubby like ginger root. It says on the package they can be substituted for potatoes for people looking to lower their blood sugar levels. (That's always good to know!) When you cut them they have a crispier texture than potatoes no starchy feel at all, sort of like a radish. I am not good at describing flavors but iun the raw state they tasted clean and fresh.

Ingredients:
1 lb. sunchokes, scrubbed cut into 1/3 in dice.
1 Yukon Gold potato also diced
3 peeled garlic cloves
8 oz shiitake mushrooms, cleaned, sliced and sauteed.  Crimini would be a good substitute.
1 leek cleaned and sliced
1/2 onion diced
9 c water  ( I used 2 c chicken stock and 6 c water) you could sub. vegetable broth
1/2 c heavy cream

Scrubbed sunchokes:

Diced sunchokes, potato and garlic cloves go into a 400F oven for 40 min, After twenty minutes take them out and stir them around. Whenever I roast veggies i add just a sprinkle of salt, a grind of pepper and a little oil, to keep them from sticking too badly.

Here's how they look at the 20 min mark:

Meanwhile attend to your other characters. Cook up the onion and leeks and slice then sautee the mushrooms.

When the roasted vegetables are done, put them into the pan with the leeks, add half the mushrooms and 1 cup of water.

Let that cook a bit, and while cooking select a couple of pretty mushrooms from the remainder for a garnish and set them aside.  Then add 8 c water ( I used less, use what feels right). The comes the fun part!  Take an immersion blender to the pan and whizz it all up, make sure no vegetable chunks remain. If you don't have an immersion blender, use a regular blender but do it very carefully and in batches, because hot liquids expand.  After all smoothied up, add the remaining mushrooms, taste for seasoning and plate it up!

This a great meal with a small salad and/or some hot crusty bread. The texture is smooth, the mushroms add a meaty flavor an a couple of textural bites from the 4 oz you add after the blending. It might be nice to garnish with a little bit of grated sharp cheese. Nice soup!  Give it a try!

See you soon.