Chef Thomas
A Proper Chicken Broth
Sunday's roast chicken, simmered slowly on Monday with carrots, celery, leeks, and thyme into a bowl of clear, golden broth that smells like the kitchen is paying attention.
Culinary Explorer
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Jerusalem Artichoke Soup
Created by Chef Thomas
Knobbly, awkward artichokes, surrendered to butter and stock and blended into something so nutty and silky it feels like the kitchen is doing you a favour on a cold January night.
Soups & Stews
British
Dinner Party
Comfort Food
25 min
Active Time
40 min cook•1 hr 5 min total
Yield4 servings
January. The garden is bare and the light goes by four. The kitchen window has fogged over and there's something on the hob that smells of butter and earth and quiet warmth. This is Jerusalem artichoke weather.
They're not much to look at. Knobbly, muddy, the shape of ginger root after a bad day. They peel badly, discolour the moment you turn your back, and resist every attempt to make them look respectable. None of that matters. What matters is what happens when you cook them slowly in butter and good stock and blend them into a soup so silky, so deeply nutty and rich, that it feels like winter's single best argument for itself.
I find them at the market in late November and buy them through to February, when they start to lose their sweetness. The stallholder piles them in a crate without ceremony. No one queues for Jerusalem artichokes the way they do for the first asparagus or the summer tomatoes. That suits me. More for the rest of us.
The soup is simple. Artichokes, butter, onion, stock, cream, lemon. A scattering of toasted hazelnuts if you want a bit of crunch, though it's not compulsory. I wrote it down in the notebook years ago: "artichoke soup, Tuesday, fog outside, best thing all week." I've made it dozens of times since and the note still holds. There are few better feelings than putting a warm bowl of this in front of someone on a cold evening and watching their shoulders drop.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
Jerusalem artichokes
Quantity
750g
peeled (or scrubbed) and roughly chopped
unsalted butter
Quantity
30g
olive oil
Quantity
1 tablespoon
onion
Quantity
1 medium
sliced
garlic
Quantity
2 cloves
crushed
chicken or vegetable stock
Quantity
750ml
double cream
Quantity
100ml
lemon
Quantity
half
juiced
fine sea salt
Quantity
to taste
white pepper
Quantity
to taste
hazelnuts (optional)
Quantity
a small handful
roughly chopped
good olive oil (optional)
Quantity
for drizzling
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Jerusalem artichokespeeled (or scrubbed) and roughly chopped | 750g |
| unsalted butter | 30g |
| olive oil | 1 tablespoon |
| onionsliced | 1 medium |
| garliccrushed | 2 cloves |
| chicken or vegetable stock | 750ml |
| double cream | 100ml |
| lemonjuiced | half |
| fine sea salt | to taste |
| white pepper | to taste |
| hazelnuts (optional)roughly chopped | a small handful |
| good olive oil (optional) | for drizzling |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy-bottomed saucepan or stockpot
- •Stick blender or countertop blender
- •Small knife for peeling
- •Ladle
Instructions
- 1
Prepare the artichokes
Peel the artichokes with a small knife, dropping the pieces into a bowl of cold water with a squeeze of lemon as you go. They discolour quickly, turning a sulky grey the moment they hit the air. Don't worry about getting every last bit of skin off. They're knobbly and uncooperative and life is short. A few patches of peel won't hurt. Chop them roughly into pieces about the size of a walnut.
If the artichokes are fresh and thin-skinned, scrub them well and don't bother peeling at all. The soup gets blended smooth anyway. Save yourself the trouble. - 2
Soften the onion
Melt the butter with the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pan over a low heat. Add the sliced onion and a good pinch of salt. Let it cook gently for eight to ten minutes, stirring now and then, until it's soft and translucent and smells sweet. No colour. You want gentleness here, not caramelisation. Add the garlic for the last minute, just enough to take the raw edge off.
- 3
Cook the artichokes
Drain the artichokes and add them to the pan. Stir them through the butter and onions, letting them pick up the warmth for a couple of minutes. Pour in the stock. It should just cover everything. If it doesn't quite, add a splash of water. Bring to a gentle simmer, put a lid on slightly ajar, and leave it for twenty to twenty-five minutes. The artichokes are ready when a knife slides through them with no resistance at all. They should be soft enough that they almost break apart when you stir.
Good stock matters here. The artichokes carry a lot of flavour on their own, but they need stock with backbone underneath them. If you've got homemade, this is the time to use it. - 4
Blend until silky
Take the pan off the heat and blend until completely smooth. A stick blender is fine. Keep going longer than you think, because Jerusalem artichokes reward patience here, turning from rough to smooth to something almost impossibly silky if you give them the time. The texture should coat the back of a spoon and feel like velvet when you taste it.
- 5
Finish and season
Return the soup to a low heat. Stir in the cream and warm it through gently. Add a squeeze of lemon juice, just enough to lift everything and stop the soup tasting flat. Season with salt and white pepper. Taste it. Then taste it again. The flavour should be nutty and clean, rich but not heavy. Ladle into warm bowls. Scatter a few chopped toasted hazelnuts over the top, and a thread of good olive oil if you like. Serve with bread that can stand up to being dunked.
Chef Tips
- •The lemon juice is quiet but essential. Without it, the soup can taste one-note, rich and nutty but flat. A squeeze of lemon sharpens everything, wakes it up, gives the flavour somewhere to go. Add it gradually and taste as you go. You shouldn't be able to identify lemon in the finished soup. You should just notice that everything tastes more like itself.
- •Toast the hazelnuts in a dry pan until they smell warm and sweet and the skins start to crack. Rub them in a tea towel to shed the worst of the skins, then chop them roughly. The crunch against the silk of the soup is the kind of contrast that makes a simple bowl feel considered.
- •If you want to make this for a dinner party, it reheats beautifully. Make it the day before, leave out the cream, and finish it on the night. You'll spend three minutes at the hob instead of forty, and no one needs to know.
- •A few drops of truffle oil on top, if you have some and if you like that sort of thing. Jerusalem artichokes and truffle are natural companions. But it's a soup that stands on its own without any flourish at all.
Advance Preparation
- •The soup can be made up to two days ahead and refrigerated before adding the cream. Reheat gently over a low heat and stir in the cream just before serving.
- •Freezes well without the cream for up to three months. Defrost overnight in the fridge and finish with cream and lemon when reheating.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 430g)
Calories
425 calories
Total Fat
29 g
Saturated Fat
13 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
16 g
Cholesterol
50 mg
Sodium
1050 mg
Total Carbohydrates
39 g
Dietary Fiber
4 g
Sugars
20 g
Protein
8 g
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