Sunchokes, or ‘Jerusalem Artichokes’, may not be the most well known vegetables but one bite of this Creamy Ginger Scalloped Sunchoke recipe and you’ll be hunting them down every winter and spring!
Years ago when I had started my locavore experiment I would strive to pick up unfamiliar produce at the Farmer’s Market to try.
One of those finds was Sunchokes.
As you might imagine from their appearance, I had no idea what they were, how to prepare them or how they would taste.
With some research I found what may be my family’s favorite spring vegetable!
When it’s Sunchoke season, be sure to grab a pound and try this Creamy Ginger Scalloped Sunchokes recipe.
You’ll be craving it again next spring.
Jump to:
- What is a Sunchoke?
- What do Sunchokes Taste Like?
- When is Sunchoke Season?
- How to Prepare
- How to Store
- Creamy Ginger Scalloped Sunchokes recipe
- Recipe Ingredients Notes
- Where to Buy Sunchokes?
- What is a Water Bath?
- How to make Homemade Breadcrumbs
- How to Make Creamy Ginger Scalloped Sunchokes recipe – Step by Step
- How to Complete this Meal
- Recipe
What is a Sunchoke?
Also known as Jerusalem Artichokes (with no seeming roots back to Jerusalem from my research), are a root vegetable.
Specifically they are the tuber of a variety of sunflower plant which is native to eastern North America and Canada.
Sunchokes are known by many other names such as earth-apple and girasole (the Italian word for sunflower; meaning ‘turning to the sun’ as many sunflowers do as they grow).
Fun fact: the sunchoke was cultivated 400-500 years ago in North American and the Lewis and Clark expedition members ate them during their journey across the U.S. when provided by Native Americans.
What do Sunchokes Taste Like?
They look like a kissing cousin to a ginger root but with the consistency of a potato-water chestnut cross.
Sunchokes have a mild flavor and a satisfying texture when cooked.
When cooked they are still a bit firm like a potato before it’s fully cooked.
When is Sunchoke Season?
Sunchokes are available year round with the primary season in North American being September through April.
In Colorado I’ve only found them in the spring and we now wait for them each year!
How to Prepare
Sunchokes can be cooked much like potatoes; with or without the peel, roasted, sautéed, boiled.
Unlike potatoes, they also can be eaten raw!
How to Store
Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
They should still be firm with no soft spots when preparing them to eat.
Creamy Ginger Scalloped Sunchokes recipe
This recipe is absolutely a family favorite.
Rich flavors of ginger and garlic with a crunchy breadcrumb-pecan topping.
The sunchokes are thinly sliced with a satisfying ‘mouth feel’ and crunch.
Recipe Ingredients Notes
The sunchokes are the only tricky ingredient to find in this recipe since they are not available all year long:
- Sunchokes
- Heavy Cream
- Ginger
- Garlic Cloves
- Kosher Salt
- Black Pepper
- Cornstarch
- Bread Crumbs
- Pecans
Where to Buy Sunchokes?
Check grocery stores with good quality seasonal produce.
Whole Foods usually has them or their produce person can tell you when they are available or order some for you.
Farmer’s Markets are also a great place to look.
What is a Water Bath?
A water bath is a method of cooking a recipe in a larger pan filled slightly with water rather than cooking it directly in the oven’s heat.
It’s commonly used for recipes needing more moisture while they cook (like cheesecakes) or more gradual heating (recipes like custards, puddings or other dairy-based dishes).
Due to the cream base of the sunchoke recipe, it cooks to perfection in a water bath.
How to Make a Water Bath
Once the sunchokes recipe is prepared in the casserole dish place it in a larger roasting pan.
Fill the pan so the hot water reaches halfway up the side of the sunchokes recipe dish.
TIP: in my experience it’s easiest to fill the roasting pan with water IN the oven rather than moving it (which risks spilling or splashing water into the sunchokes).
Place the roasting pan with the sunhokes dish on an extended oven rack (carefully of course).
Pour in the water and slide it into the oven to cook.
How to make Homemade Breadcrumbs
Purchased or homemade breadcrumbs may be used for this recipe. Regular or gluten-free breadcrumbs too.
The finished photos used homemade breadcrumbs and the process photos used purchased gluten-free Panko breadcrumbs.
They are all delicious but making your own breadcrumbs is easy and a great way use up bread you might normally discard.
Making breadcrumbs from scratch is very easy. It’s a great trick in the event you run out of purchased breadcrumbs too.
Making Homemade Breadcrumbs – Easy Step by Step Instruction
This method works for any type of bread (gluten-free or with gluten).
Step 1: Toast slices of bread in a toaster using a higher setting, in a toaster oven or under the broiler (watching to ensure no burning). Allow to cool until they feel room temperature to the touch.
Step 2: Break the toast into a few large pieces and process through a food processor, mini chopper or blender until achieving the desired crumb consistency.
Step 3 (if needed): If the crumbs still have any moisture, spread the crumbs into a single layer on a rimmed cookie sheet and bake on 400 degrees for 5 minutes, shaking the pan halfway through. Crumbs should just begin to turn golden. Allow to cool fully before incorporating into a recipe or freezing in a sealed bag for future use.
How to Make Creamy Ginger Scalloped Sunchokes recipe – Step by Step
Please refer to the recipe card at the end of the blog post for specific measurements.
STEP 1. Preparation
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter a 1 quart casserole or gratin dish (photo 1).
STEP 2. Cook
In a saucepan combine sunchokes, the cream, ginger, garlic, season with salt and pepper over medium heat, stirring constantly to prevent burning.
Cook 5 minutes once hot to soften the sunchokes (photo 2).
Mix the remaining cream with cornstarch; stir to fully combine (photo 3).
Add to sunchoke mixture in saucepan and continue to cook 5-8 minutes longer until the mixture begins to thicken (photo 4).
STEP 3. Make Topping
In a small bowl combine the bread crumbs and pecans (photo 5).
STEP 4. Bake
Spoon the sunchoke mixture into the prepared baking pan (photo 6).
Cover the top evenly with bread/pecan mixture (photo 7).
Place the baking dish of sunchokes in a larger roasting pan. Fill with hot water to reach halfway up the side of the baking dish to create a water bath (photo 8).
Bake until done when top becomes golden brown; about 20-25 minutes.
How to Complete this Meal
Pair with roasted chicken or grilled meats.
More Vegetable Recipes You’ll Love
- Lemony Romanesco with Pine Nuts
- How to Cook Artichokes and Tarragon-Chive Dipping Sauce
- Balsamic Roasted Fall Vegetables with Sumac
- Fresh Green Beans with Bacon and Sliced Almonds
- Lemon Garlic Broccoli
- Grilled Fava Beans with Balsamic Vinegar
- Pick a side dish recipe!
Recipe
Creamy Scalloped Ginger Sunchokes
Ingredients
- 2 cups peeled, sliced (1/8-inch thick slices) Sunchokes (approximately 1 1/4 pounds before peeling)
- 1 cup Heavy Cream
- 3 tablespoons freshly grated Ginger
- 2 large Garlic Cloves , minced
- ½ teaspoon Kosher Salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground Black Pepper
- 1 ½ teaspoon Cornstarch
- ¾ cup dried Bread Crumbs*
- ¼ cup diced Pecans
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter a 1 quart casserole or gratin dish.
- In a saucepan combine sunchokes, ¾ cup PLUS 2 tablespoons of the cream, ginger, garlic, salt and pepper over medium-low heat, stirring constantly to prevent burning. Let cook 5 minutes once hot to combine all flavors and soften the sunchokes.
- Mix the remaining 2 tablespoons of cream with cornstarch; stir to fully combine.
- Add to sunchoke mixture in saucepan and continue to cook 5-8 minutes (over medium-low heat) longer until the mixture begins to thicken.
- In a small bowl combine the bread crumbs and pecans and stir to fully mix together.
- Spoon the sunchoke mixture into the prepared baking pan. Cover the top evenly with bread/pecan mixture.
- Place the baking dish of sunchokes in a larger roasting pan. Fill with hot water to reach halfway up the side of the baking dish to create a water bath.
- Bake until done when top becomes golden brown; about 20-25 minutes. NOTE: if the topping begins to over brown, place foil on top and continue cooking.
Video
Notes
Recipe adatped from About.com
Nutrition
Originally published: April 29, 2011
Elsie says
Hi Toni. Sounds like a fabulous recipe for the sunchokes that I just harvested. For a larger family gathering, I will need more than the recipe amount. Do you think I can double up to use a 2 qt dish and still fill with up to half the dish for the water bath? I assume cook time will be longer (any thought on how much longer?) and I should cover the top with foil after 20 mins to ensure no burning?
Toni Dash says
Hi Elsie. I’ve only made the recipe as written but you should be able to double the recipe in a larger pan following the instructions. Regarding cooking it longer if the pan is larger you may not need to cook it longer. I would follow the recipe instructions and look for the signs of it being done (crumb color on top and maybe fork test the sunchokes).If you find the crumb topping is becoming much darker but the sunchokes are not fully cooked then yes I would add foil to the top. Enjoy!
Sue Evans says
Probably missed it but do are the sun chokes left whole or are they sliced ( if so how thick). Can’t wait to find these morsels and try. Thanks much!
Toni Dash says
Hi Sue. They are sliced. Check the recipe card at the end of the post for specifics but they should be sliced about 1/8-inch thick.
Allison says
Amazing!!!! I received some sunchokes in my CSA and stumbled upon this recipe when searching for a new way to cook them. Like many, I’m trying to minimize trips to the grocery store, so I had to make some minor modifications: I only had ~3/4 cup of sunchokes, so I supplemented with sweet potatoes, I used walnuts in place of pecans (although I think pecans would have been even better), and I used a mix of half and half with milk in place of the heavy cream. It came out so well that I didn’t even miss the cream. The sauce was still nice and thick with the cornstarch/pre-cooking. The ginger is what drew me in to this recipe, and the final product was even better than expected. Thank you 🙂
Toni Dash says
Allison I can’t tell you how happy your comment makes me! I too LOVE this recipe as does my family. My daughter asks for it every year when sunchokes are in season (this reminds me to go check that with my grocery services).
I love the way you ‘made it work’ which is the mantra of the times isn’t it?
Thank you for taking the time to leave your comment! I really appreciate it.
Lisa D says
This recipe was amazing! I sub-ed half the sunchokes for potatos and it was a hit in my house 🙂
Ruth I says
This is the first time I’ve heard of it. I wish we have here so I cant taste it too! Yummy recipe!
Chelle Dizon says
Oh wow, this is actually the first time to heard about Sunchokes. Thank you so much for sharing that recipe.
Bruce says
Nice dish,. FYI, the Jerusalem part is supposedly bastardisation of ‘girasolle’ which you mentioned in the text. They are so versatile… Even as an ice cream….
Heather says
Looks like such a great recipe! I can’t wait to try to make this over the weekend!