…with feta and panko breadcrumbs.
Newest obsession? Sunchokes. It all began with the yummiest kale salad I’ve had to date at Porta Pizza in New Jersey- yeahh Jerz! It was made with tuscan kale, shaved sunchoke, watermelon radish, chile garlic crostini, parmigiano reggiano, and a lemon-garlic dressing. Insanely good. The boys who disliked Kale renounced their feelings after that salad, they even wanted to order another one after our meal was finished.
So sunchokes. They are these small nubbins of goodness. Eaten raw, they are crisp and refreshing like water chestnuts. When cooked, they are moist, sweet, and starchy. They kind of look like ginger, but the taste is more of an artichoke heart. The first time working with them I simply cut and roasted them, skin intact, with some salt, pepper and olive oil and it was sooo yummy. It’s like having potatoes- but better, way better. This time, I got a tad more fancy and used the sunchokes in a yummy side dish. The mushrooms are hearty and delicious, a great option to have for the non-meat eating crowd at a dinner party.
Ingredients:
1 tbsp. olive oil
1/2 red onion, minced
3 medium sunchokes, peeled and cut into 1/4″ cubes
1 package baby bella mushrooms
1/2 bag of fresh spinach
2 dashes cayenne pepper
salt& pepper, to taste
1/3-1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1 egg
1 small shallot, minced
1/3 cup panko breadcrumbs
Procedure:
Preheat the oven to 350.
On a small skillet, heat up 1 tablespoon of olive oil on a medium-high heat. Saute the red onion for about 4-5 minutes. Then, add in the chopped sunchokes and continue to saute for another 10 minutes.
While sauteing the sunchokes, prepare the mushrooms. Clean them really well and remove the stems from the inside. There is no reason to waste those stems so chop ‘em up and throw them into the sunchoke saute. Place the mushrooms, belly up, on a lined cooking tray, set aside.
When the sunchokes are almost cooked through, add in the spinach and season with cayenne pepper, and some salt & pepper. When the saute mixture is done (don’t worry if some sunchokes are still a bit hard- they will have time to cook some more in the oven) place it into a mixing bowl and add in the minced shallot, feta cheese, and egg. Mix well.
Begin to spoon the mixture inside the mushrooms. Next, sprinkle some panko breadcrumbs and roast in the oven for approximately 15 minutes. If you wish broil for the last minute to brown the crumbs. Serves 4, enjoy!