Jerusalem Artichoke Soup with 3 cornered leeks, roast garlic, hazelnuts and herb robert

Liza: March 8, 2022

Making Soup

Spring is in the air and I’ve felt a pull to be in the kitchen cooking up lots of batch meals, particularly soups!

The best meals start with seasonal/available ingredients and today I had Jerusalem artichokes (sometimes called sunchokes) and I wanted to make soup.

Jerusalem Artichokes

Jerusalem artichokes are tubers of the Helianthus tuberosus plant, a sunflower species native to North America.
It is popularly cultivated around the world, including the UK but you’re more likely to come across it in veg boxes or at farmer’s markets or homegrown than in the supermarkets.
They are absolutely delicious and worth growing if you have a garden or allotment.

The Recipe

I rarely follow a recipe but I instead take inspiration from various recipes.
Quite often when wondering what to make, I’ll type my ingredients into google image followed by the word ‘recipe’ and see what makes my mouth water.

I first looked at this simple version from Riverford, I liked the idea of adding roast hazelnuts but I spotted another recipe on their page that added leeks and roast garlic which sounded delicious! (and a great excuse to use some of the three cornered leeks which are taking over a corner of my garden)

I only had three artichokes and I wanted to bulk it up a bit so I added potatoes which are a fairly common edition and celery, an idea approved by Elise Bauer’s recipe.

I decided to roast the Artichokes because I was already using the oven and I felt it would enhance their nutty flavour.

Ingredients

Jerusalem artichokes
Potatoes
Onion
Garlic
Celery
Stock
Three cornered leeks
Herb robert
Ground roast hazelnuts
Cream
Knob of butter (opt)
Salt and pepper

Quantities: I haven’t added quantities, it’s really down to personal taste and how many servings you want. I had 3 large artichokes, added 3 small potatoes, a medium onion, a whole bulb of roasted garlic, a rib of celery, a handful of leeks and herb robert. I probably went a bit heavy on the hazelnuts so the flavour was quite prominent but I enjoyed it.

Method

Preheat oven to 190°C

Roast Garlic. I put the whole unpeeled bulb in the oven for about 40 minutes, left outside to cool and then sliced the end off and peeled the cloves.

Scrub the artichokes (see notes) you may need to break off some of the knobbly bits to get all the dirt off.

Chop and drizzle with olive oil, a pinch of salt and pepper and roast for about 25 minutes.

Roast Hazelnuts. Put the nuts in a small oven-proof dish and roast for about 10 minutes or until starting to brown. Check them after 5 minutes.
Cool and grind either in a food processor or by hand.

Chop onion and celery, fry in olive oil until softened.

Wash/scrub potatoes and chop into small pieces (no need to peel).

Stock. Use your favourite stock, veg or otherwise. I make a stock using medicinal mushrooms for extra health benefits.

Add potatoes and stock to the pan with the onions and celery and simmer, adding the artichokes until everything is nice and soft.

Remove from heat add leeks and herb robert (or other herbs of choice), garlic, ground nuts, a dollop of cream (opt), salt and pepper and blend, adding more stock/water if needed.

Taste and add more seasoning if required.

Serve with crusty bread or croutons. I also love the idea of adding crispy sage leaves as in this NYT recipe.

Notes

I bought a cheap nail brush for scrubbing my vegetables, it works really well.

You could peel the potatoes and artichokes for a smoother soup but I prefer to include the skin for extra fibre and nutrition. Just cut off any brown or mushy bits.

I made this recipe plant based, I used Oatly organic oat cream and naturli organic block but you can omit both of these or use dairy versions if you prefer.

One Pan Method. If you don’t want to use the oven you can cook the artichokes and garlic on the stove with the other ingredients and toast the nuts in a dry pan (do this first to avoid using 2 pans).

Blending. I used a stick blender just because it’s easier to wash up but use whatever you have in your kitchen.

Variations: I used ingredients that I had to hand, you could add cashews instead of hazelnuts or experiment with other herbs.
If you don’t have three cornered leek just use normal leeks and sauté with the onions and celery.

If you make this soup please leave a comment below and let me know what you thought or what you did differently.