What's your favorite sunchoke recipe? Do you have one? I love this caramelized sunchoke & Brussels sprout salad - a perfect light winter meal.
It’s hardly winter in Austin anymore, but I’m still trying to keep all of you snowbirds in mind. Enter: the winter sunchoke salad. This sunchoke recipe is full of warm, roasty goodness and brightened up with a tangy lemon dressing.
Cooking with sunchokes
Have you cooked with sunchokes? Do you have a sunchoke recipe to recommend? They’re new to me, but I just love them, so I was eager to develop a sunchoke recipe of my own.
Sunchokes, also known as Jerusalem artichokes, have a potato-like quality. I like them both thinly sliced and roasted or sautéed with butter and oil. Fortunately, they’re less starchy than potatoes, so they don’t make this salad too heavy, but they do bring a nice substantial bite to it, and I like my salads to have some substance.
This sunchoke salad
Shaving the brussels sprouts makes this salad pretty fast and easy. With just a few minutes in a pan, they develop a sweet caramelized flavor, a method that I’m surprised took me this long to discover. But now that I have, I’ll be using it again and again.
I use the same pan to cook the thinly shaved sunchokes in this recipe, making them a nice, crisp contrast to the Brussels sprouts. Before serving, I toss the caramelized veggies with pine nuts, salad greens, a little Parmesan, and a splash of the lemony Dijon dressing.
Brussels Sprout & Sunchoke Salad
- 1 cup sunchokes, sliced about ⅛ inch thick (scrub them pretty well before slicing/using)
- 2 cups brussels sprouts, thinly sliced on a mandoline, if you have one
- Small handful of baby salad greens
- Combination of olive oil & butter for the pan. (I used vegan earth balance butter.)
- Red pepper flakes
- Pine nuts
- Parmesan cheese shavings (optional)
- Salt & pepper
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ garlic clove, minced
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- Lemon juice from ½ a lemon
- Drizzle of honey (about ¼ to ½ teaspoon)
- Salt & pepper
- Make the dressing: In a small bowl, whisk together the dressing ingredients. Taste and adjust seasonings. Set aside.
- Lightly salt the shaved brussels sprouts and sliced sunchokes before you start cooking them.
- Heat the olive oil and butter in a large skillet (use enough just to coat the bottom). When the oil is hot, add the sunchokes and cook them for about 2-4 minutes per side, until they're tender and a little bit crispy around the edges. Remove them from the pan when they're done.
- Wipe out the same pan, heat more oil and butter. Add the brussels sprouts, cooking for about 2 minutes per side until they start to get a little golden brown on the edges. (Don't crowd them in the pan - you might have to work in batches). Remove from pan and set aside.
- Toss everything together with some of the dressing. Add as much dressing as you like and serve with extra on the side. Top with pine nuts, red pepper flakes and a few shavings of Parmesan if you like.
Can you make this in advance except for tossing with the dressing?
Hi Margie, That should work fine!
Made this salad for dinner last night – added some millet cooked in a light veg stock to bulk it out a little. It was delicious, and the dressing is well balanced. I’m currently heating up my leftovers to pop an egg on top for breakfast!
Jeanine…we made this one last night and it was amazing! Mike turned to me and said, “Two for two!” (He was referring to Love and Lemons.:) ) We want to go for a third…what’s your favorite? 🙂
xo dina
Hi Dina, that’s so great, ha! Feeling the pressure to pick out a good one now… what was the first one you tried?
The first one was the walnut mushroom veggie burgers. Divine.
Thank you!:)
This was fabulous! My very first recipe with sunchokes (and also my first from this blog). I love brussel sprouts in just about anything, but the taste of those sunchokes was unbelievabley good (and cooked way faster than pototoes too – so it was good for a quick meal on the go). I will definitely be trying more of your recipes in the future (I’ve already book marked half a dozen) 🙂
Hi Asha, I’m so glad you liked it!
Oh dear! Brussels Sprouts are among my most favorite of salad ingredients and I’m always looking for new combinations. Love!
Brussels sprouts are actually the best thing ever!
I’ve never cooked with sunchokes before, but this recipe has definitely inspired me to try! Thanks! Looks like a truly delicious, unique salad. Happy weekend!
This looks so delicious! Love both sprouts and sunchokes – im sure the mix of flavors are great together. Love your blog, I’ve just added it to my ‘inspiration’ page on my blog.
I combined this salad with your winter roasted kale salad. And threw in some roasted cauliflower (I’m still not over cauliflower). Delicious! Thanks for the inspiration.
all my favorite winter vegetables!
All I have to say is… MMM! 🙂
Unfortunately sunchokes disagree with me but I really love their taste. I think that salsify tastes rather similar and would go brilliantly with the sprouts. So pretty!
Dammit — there was a whole box of sunchoke starts at the seed swap I just went to, and I didn’t grab any because I didn’t know what I’d do with the crop. This looks delicious. Hoping they’re still available at the farmers market.
I’ve never had a sunchoke but with your description I’ll have to check them out! It feels like winter just hit here in Colorado. We’ve had a cold snap this week!
This is such a timely post! I just bought sunchokes to try for the first time and was thinking of doing something similar with them. I’m still on the fence between a soup or a salad, but if I have some leftover, I’ll be making your recipe for sure!
clever combination of ingredients. love the idea of brussels and chokes, together as one!
I wish I would have had this recipe last year!! I was given a bunch of sunchokes from a friend’s CSA and couldn’t find much to do with them other than soup. Your salad recipe sounds delicious!!
I’ve never cooked with sunchokes, but will have to try! Looks delicious.
Love sunchokes! And love that you’re keeping us northern-dwelling types in mind, Much appreciated 😉 Beautiful salad, Jeanine!
I love love shaved brussels sprout salads but have never cooked with sunchokes. I am a fan of anything potatoey, so I will have to give them a try!
This is such a fabulous meal! Yum!