BUNJY RECIPE BOOK: ROAST GARLIC SUNCHOKE TATER SOUP
sunchokes are a funny little tuber produced by a type of sunflower. they look like ginger root and taste like artichoke! you can even cook them with the skin on as long as they're scrubbed. I did this recipe because I had a bunch of them from a farmer's market but you can swap them out for potato in this recipe if you don't have them.
roast the garlic heads before hand: chop them in half widthwise, cradle both halves in aluminum foil like a baked potato and drizzle heavily with olive oil, completely close the foil into a little packet and bake directly on the oven rack at 400 F for 50 minutes to an hour. At the end, squeeze them out of their husk like toothpaste into a bowl. congrats. roasted garlic.
1 stick of butter (half a stick if not using sunchokes)
2 pounds sunchokes, scrubbed and sliced into disks (can substitute potatoes if you don't have them)
1 pound red or yellow potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 large leeks, like BIG. you should be thinking "that's too much leek"
1 medium yellow or white onion
2 1/2 tsp dried sage (rubbed is best)
dash white wine vinegar (to taste)
1 tsp white pepper (heaping)
about 1/4-1/3 cup heavy cream, to your taste
immersion blender (the cheap ones are around $30 and they get the job done)
first, place the broth and bay leaves in a stock pot and bring to a low boil. once the stock is bubbling, add the potatoes and ignore them. in the meantime, brown the butter in a LARGE pan on medium heat- just melt the butter and keep swirling it by tilting the pan until it turns a deep brown color. once it does, add the sunchokes (if using) and stir them around just to get them coated in butter, then leave them on medium high heat to get a bit of a sear. once they do, add the onions and leeks on top of them and cook just until they're starting to soften, then add the roasted garlic and sage and stir around just until fragrant, then dump the whole pan into the stockpot with the simmering broth.
cook for around 20 minutes, just until the leeks and sunchokes and potatoes are totally soft, then fish out the bay leaves, turn off the heat, and use an immersion blender to make the soup into a homogenous slop. add a couple good glugs of white white vinegar, stopping to stir and taste in between, drizzle in your cream to your desired creaminess, and finish with the white pepper and salt to taste. to TASTE. you should have a couple of spoons next to the pot for the clean-spoon-dirty-spoon technique for this whole stage, and you should be tasting after every addition and adjusting as needed.
