[VIDEO] Jerusalem artichoke and carrot soup

I had been on a lucky run of videos which were easy to film and relatively easy to edit. This stopped with a thud this week. For some reason, editing this week’s video was at times somewhat painful. Technical problems, technical mistakes (my camera steamed up halfway through!), interruptions, toilet breaks during cooking – well, it was all there. And as always, it’s all left in the video. Nothing gets hidden on this blog!

As it happens, the soup was truly delicious. We live near some allotments and our neighbour (and old infant school friend of mine) Sheila kindly dropped in a large bag of Jerusalem artichokes for us to use. I had never actually cooked with Jerusalem artichokes before. A bit of research told me that they are neither from Jerusalem, nor are they actually artichokes. Confused? I was! So I sought solace in a trusted voice. All recommendations seemed to lead to one recipe – Delia’s Jerusalem artichoke and carrot soup – and that is what we based this soup on here (I cut out some of the stages in the recipe, just to cater for the attention span of a two year old, and slightly modified the ingredients/quantities).

Thick soups have always been a favourite here with Archie. Served with fresh crusty bread, our first attempt at cooking with Jerusalem artichokes was a big success. As for the flavour? Think somewhere between chicory, radish and potato, not too bitter, not too sweet, just lovely.

Preparation time 10 minutes, cooking time 30-35 minutes.
This recipe would easily serve 6.

350g carrots, chopped
950g Jerusalem artichokes, peeled, chopped and left sitting in a bowl of lightly salted water to prevent discoloration.
1 chopped red onion
A few chopped stalks of celery
1.5l vegetable stock. As previously recommended on this blog, I feel there is no better stock than Marigold Swiss Bouillon.
Crème fraiche (or any type of cream) to serve

1. Put a large glug of olive oil in a large pan and gently cook the onion and celery for 4-5 minutes.
2. Add the carrots and Jerusalem artichokes (make sure you rinse the artichokes well after removing them from the salted water or else the soup will be too salty).
3. Carry on cooking all the vegetables for another 4-5 minutes.
4. Add the vegetable stock and bring the soup to the boil.
5. Simmer gently for 25 minutes.
6. Blend the soup with a hand blender or in a food mixer.
7. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
8. Serve with fresh bread and a swirl of the cream.