French Fridays with Dorie: Jerusalem artichoke soup with parsley-walnut pesto

We’re working with Jerusalem artichokes again this week for French Fridays with Dorie. Despite the name, these ugly root vegetables are NOT artichokes. Also known as sunchokes they are a member of the sunflower family (their flowers are similar in appearance). We’ve roasted Jerusalem artichokes for French Fridays previously so I was fortunate enough to know where to find them for this week’s recipe.

Knowing that this soup would most likely not be the prettiest (it’s kinda beige), Dorie suggests serving this with a parsley coulis which is basically parsley and olive oil. Before I realised it, I was making this in my full-sized food processor and try as it might, it simply would not make a “coulis-like” substance. It was more like oil with bits of parsley in it… So I threw in some chopped walnuts and whizzed it up to become a walnut-parsley pesto. It worked well – the nuts brought more of a depth of flavour to the soup too. Plus, it’s really pretty!

The soup itself is fairly bland – it does need a kick of flavour (and, well, colour too!). According to Dorie, sunchokes were one of the very few vegetables available in markets after World War II and so many French people think of it like the Irish think of potatoes… It’s not been a very popular vegetable until recently when it’s started appearing on menus in various guises like soups and purées.

This soup contains sunchokes, onions, leeks and celery so it’s more on the green than the beige side of the colour spectrum but it definitely needed the pop of colour from the coulis pesto.

Faced with cooking sunchokes again, I’d make this soup for sure. It was more flavourful than the roasted version of the vegetable and easier to fancy up with add-ins.

Get the recipe for Dorie Greenspan’s Jerusalem artichoke soup with parsley coulis here or on p 76 of Around my French Table.

French Fridays with Dorie participants do not publish the recipes on our blogs, we prefer if you purchase Around My French Table for yourselves which you can do here on Amazon or Amazon Canada. Or for free worldwide shipping, buy from The Book Depository. Go on, treat yourself then join us here!

NEW: Want to experience Paris differently? Join me in March 2015 with AYA Life for a trip to Paris like no other – “like a local”. Details here.

_________

Canadians – Enter to win a DK Eyewitness Travel guide! Closes Wednesday November 12th at 6pm EST. Details here.

___________

Please note: The product links from Amazon, Amazon.ca and The Book Depository are affiliate links, meaning if you click over and purchase something, I will receive a very small percentage of the purchase price which goes towards maintaining eat. live. travel. write. Thank you in advance!