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Better Than Butternut: Roasted Delicata Squash Recipe
10 Simple Ways To Eat Less Without Noticing
Juicing: Stupid and Pretentious or Nourishing and Enlightening?
10 Tasty Carbs That Won’t Make You Fat
How To Start Working Out When You Don’t Like To Exercise
Focus More on Your Brain and Less on Your Diet if You’re Serious About Losing Weight
Home Court Habits: The Secret to Effortless Weight Control
10 Reasons You Aren’t Losing Weight When You Think You’re Doing Everything Right
How To Burn More Calories Without Breaking A Sweat
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Foodists
Sunchokes: Did You Know?
Sunchokes, or Jerusalem artichokes, are one of the few tubers native to North America. Despite the name, these plants are not from Jerusalem nor are they artichokes. They are in fact a type of sunflower, though their flavor is similar to that of an artichoke. For this reason Italian cultivators called them girasole, the Italian translation of sunflower. When pronounced in Italian, girasole sounds similar to Jerusalem. Hence the name Jerusalem artichoke.
Their unique taste and texture make sunchokes a fantastic addition to many foods, however they are particularly useful as a potato substitute for diabetics. Unlike most tubers, sunchokes store their carbohydrates in the form of inulin instead of starch. Our digestive enzymes do not breakdown inulin, so it has a minimal impact on blood sugar and does not raise triglycerides.
The down side of inulin is that since it is not easily digested it can produce gas and bloating in sensitive people. Cooking sunchokes well can minimize this effect. It is also a good idea to eat a small amount the first time you try them and build up your tolerance.
Sunchokes are a good source of potassium, thiamin and phosphorus, and a fantastic source of iron and soluble fiber.
They make a delicious soup, but can also be roasted, sauteed or eaten raw.
What is your favorite way to eat and prepare sunchokes?
Fun Fact for the day:Inulin is used in kidney function testing because it is freely filtered by the glomerulus, secreted into the tubule, and not reabsorbed. It is therefore a perfect measure of total renal perfusion. True story.
Who knew Starbucks was putting sunchokes into their foamy lattes…..?!
I like your optimism about strange and weird foods; I’ve only ever seen sunchokes at 1 organic grocery store in my area, and it probably would have never crossed my mind to actually eat it; now I really wanna try!
Awww, now I’m all choked up…have a great Thanksgiving 🙂
Tubers are exciting. How related are the sunchokes to ginger, they look so similar?! So many root vegetable posts lately, I wouldn’t look at a sunchoke and think its a veggie. My prediction is that this will be the year of the root vegetable, and Darya is their champion!
I love your ‘did you know’ articles. I had no idea sunchokes were so good for you, and I can’t wait to try roasting them now!
What a weird way for a real vegetable to get a name!
anon1:Cool, thanks.—–Nicholas:Ah, Zoolander. Classic comedy.—–Mike:That is exactly what I am trying to get across to people. Why not buy random vegetables? They aren’t usually very expensive….—–Jed:Thanks! Back attcha!—–Healthyliving:I’m not sure if ginger is realted to sunchokes, but they sure taste different! Like I said, it is really more similar to an artichoke and a potato.—–Anon2:Thank you. Did you ever get around to roasting them?—–Katie:I think there are a bunch of things are named by the mispronunciation of another language. Strange indeed.
Thank you for your post! I will be using some of your facts in our Livestream today where our chef will be preparing Twice Cooked Sunchokes. You can watch it live at Noon Eastern or on Demand after the fact.
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