Now that's an ugly vegetable

Before I get to the ugly vegetable, I have an update on the beloved organic veggie box. I had gotten an email about three weeks ago saying that the company was making some changes, and they hoped to be back in 2 weeks. Last week I called to get an update, and unfortunately the company has gone out of business. This is a disappointment as we all know how much I loved the organic veggie box. I'm thinking about looking into a community supported agriculture program, once they're available for the season, if you have any suggestions, let me know!

Onto the ugly vegetable...

I've seen a few recipes calling for an ingredient called a Jerusalem artichoke. I had never seen this in the grocery store, so never had the chance to try it. A few months ago I noticed that they're available at the hippy grocery store in my neighbourhood. No wonder regular grocery stores don't carry these things, look at them:

They kind of look like ginger, but with more knobs. And they were stored in water, so their skin is kind of translucent. It's really not visually appealing whatsoever. Even as I cut into them and watched the knobs fall off, I was kind of shuddered. But true to the word of one of my recipe books, the texture is just like any other root vegetable:

A knob fell onto the floor as I was cutting these up, and Oslo gobbled it up. Of course he was right by my feet waiting for something to drop.

I made a soup out of these Jerusalem artichokes, to start:

1 sweet onion

2 cloves garlic

1 stalk celery

Chop and put these into a pot with some olive oil, let them soften for 5 minutes or so. Add your chopped Jerusalem artichokes and let it all soften for another 5 minutes. Add 5 cups of stock (I used veggie), some pepper, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for 20-25 minutes.

Add a cup of milk (I used almond milk), and zap with a hand blender until smooth:

It was 11pm by the time this was done, so I only had a taste so far. The flavour was sharper than you would expect for a pureed soup of this colour, it almost has a refreshing hint to it. I'm really excited to try this tomorrow at lunch, especially since I won't have to look at it's original form. This is a perfect example of why one should not judge a book by it's cover.