…which are also known as Jerusalem Artichokes, Sunroots, and Helianthus tuberosus. Watch the video, or scroll down for more details.

Paul Wheaton’s excellent video on Sunchokes

First things first: Inulin

Sunchokes have a lot of inulin, a starch that is very healthy but can cause digestive distress if taken in quantities that are too large — this relates to the origin of the name “fartichoke”. They are similar to Jicama in terms of inulin content. If you haven’t eaten many sunchokes before, take it slow! Just grate a little into your salad, or bake up a few for a small side dish, and see how it goes. You will probably need to give your body a chance to get used to digesting inulin.

Using fresh

Sunchokes can be finely sliced or grated over salads to add a fresh crispy taste, similar to Jicama.

Savory baked sunchokes

This is tasty! Cut up your sunchokes, toss with oil, salt and pepper (or cajun seasoning mix, or italian herbs, or anything else you like), and bake at 325 Fahrenheit until they start to turn golden. They will still be fairly high in inulin, so you can enjoy the full health benefits while eating this as a side dish.

Fully cooked sunchokes

Traditionally, sunchokes were steamed in pit ovens for a long time, even days. The long, low heat will convert the inulin to the much more digestible fructose. They will become sweeter, and you will be able to eat them in large quantities as a staple food. There are some useful tips on a forum thread here:

1. Slice the tubers, and boil them for 15 minutes with something to make the water acidic, like vinegar or cream of tartar. I haven’t tried this, and can’t vouch for it, but supposedly it reduces the inulin.
2. Put them in a crock pot, or an oven at 200 degrees, and let them cook for 24 hours. If you do this, make sure you have enough water with them so they do not dry out and burn! This is the surest way to convert the inulin.
3. If you let your sunchokes freeze a few times in the ground it can start converting some of the inulin. In areas like the Pacific Northwest where the ground does not freeze deep, this may or may not be much help, though.

Once you have fully cooked your sunchokes, you can serve them any number of ways:

1. Serve lightly salted with butter melted over them
2. Mash them like potatoes, with butter, milk, salt, and pepper
3. Bake tossed with oil and spices
4. Made into a curry
5. Added to a pot roast or New England Dinner