Sunchoke Hash with Bacon

Have you ever tried sunchokes, also called Jerusalem artichokes for reasons I don't know?  For years, they were just these mysterious little brown orbs in the gourmet produce section of my market.  Their knobbly exterior doesn't exactly scream 'I'm delicious, eat me' so I kept walking.  But a restaurant meal I had came with a tasty sunchoke puree and suddenly I had to look into this.

My regular supermarket doesn't carry them but a gourmet produce mart nearby does and I love shopping there for interesting new ingredients.  I did a bit of research and, nutritionally, they are very similar to potatoes but with a much higher iron content.  They're also considered lower carb because the carbs they contain do not affect blood sugar.  I'm not concerned about that for myself but it was an interesting factoid.

At this point, I've tried roasting them and mashing them and I've liked both.  The taste is slightly sweeter than a white potato but nowhere near as sweet as a sweet potato.  I think they're quite delicious.  I had some left over from my experiments so I decided to make a breakfast for dinner style hash.  Normally I like adding bell pepper but I didn't have any so I tossed in some leftover Brussels sprouts and it was great.  Enjoy!







Ingredients
1/2 lb. Sunchokes, peeled and diced
1/4 Red onion, peeled and sliced
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Red bell pepper, diced (optional)
1/2 Cup lightly cooked Brussels sprouts (optional)
2 Slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
Salt & pepper to taste

Add the olive oil and diced sunchokes to a cast iron pan and cook on medium low heat for about 20 minutes.  Add the red onion and either bell pepper, Brussels sprouts or both.  Continue cooking for an additional 10 minutes or until the vegetables are tender and lightly golden brown.  Toss on the crumbled bacon and a sunny side egg, if you like.  Makes 1 serving.