With the sun waking up and shaking off winter, spring and summer bring about times where soup is often left behind unless we’re talking about gazpacho. To soups credit, it’s a dish that should still be incorporated into our spring and summer menus since it’s easy to make, stores well as a leftover, and most importantly the fiber can help us improve our digestion (but take it easy and read my notes on these sunchokes), making us feel great from the inside out when we might be showing a little more midriff and skin, right? The combination of zesty fresh lemon made in a delicate broth surrounding chunks of fiber rich sunchokes, make it the perfect spring soup to welcome into your repertoire!

Sunny sunchokes

Sunchokes are also known as Jerusalem artichokes, they’re incredibly rich in fiber and taste slightly like an artichoke heart mixed with earthy mushroom and jicama- odd flavor combination to think about, but they’re amazing! I first discovered sunchokes while visiting Rehoboth Beach in Delaware last year at a tapas bar. We were served a plate of roasted sunchokes on a bed of pureed polenta, a drizzle of olive oil, heavy on the sea salt, and garnished with lemon and micro greens- needless to say, it was sublime. Inspiration strikes me at all times of day, in the most random places and times and this was no exception. I immediately whipped out my phone notes, where I keep recipes ideas that hit me, and wrote it down for one that I’d reserve for the cookbook… then I just couldn’t wait to share it! This is such a lovely dish to make for a light lunch or side dish to a meal. The combination of fiber rich sunchokes, lima beans, and the lemon broth is so simple and nourishing in the best way.

If you’ve never worked with sunchokes before, they look strikingly similar to a ginger root! Sunchokes contain a unique fiber called inulin, which is a soluble non-starch polysaccharide, basically a type of fiber that helps your digestive system move along by adding bulk to food by holding onto water and moisture. Sunchokes also contain vitamin C, A, E, trace amounts of B vitamins, with minerals like potassium, iron (one of the highest root vegetables to contain almost 43% DV in 100g!), and copper. Sunchokes are eaten like a potato or other root veggies, therefore you can roast them, stem, puree, boil, bake, etc. before eating. In this recipe I like to showcase them in my favorite way which is roasting them and then serving them in a bowl with this lemon broth and plump and protein rich lima beans. The combination is delicious!

Q

Sunchokes give me gas when I eat them, how can I avoid this? 

A

Great question! It’s true for many people. I always note, for those of you who might not be used to eating fiber rich foods very often, I highly recommend gently easing your way into eating more fiber, including sunchokes. Adding too much fiber all in at once may give your tummy some serious bloat and digestive issues and that’s actually the complete opposite of what this recipe is supposed to do! So, just take it easy, eat a couple sunchokes at a time, if you’re a seasoned fiber-eater like I am, you’ll have no issues. Also, add in a digestive enzyme before you eat this dish if you have a hunch your tummy might give you any issue.

Try this broth-based soup with a hearty piece of toasted Nourishing Nut & Seed Bread and top with fresh avocado or a protein of your choice like extra lima beans, a piece of wild caught fish, a poached egg (following the NS philosophy), tempeh, whatever your heart desires. To store as leftovers, I highly recommend storing the broth separately from the roasted sunchokes; then upon serving you can heat up and mix the two using the directions in the recipe.

I hope you all enjoy this one as much as I have been lately! Enjoy!

Just a reminder, these are the last couple of days to purchase your ticket to my Spring Brunch this Saturday here in Nashville, looking forward to seeing so many of you!

xx McKel