Jerusalem Artichoke Soup

So this week I received my Bountiful Basket and in it were about a pound of Jerusalem Artichokes. I had no clue what they were(my first thought was what in the world would I do with all of these ginger roots), so I turned to Google.


These are also called Sun Roots and they are part of the Daisy family and grow beautiful flowers like this...Who knew??? Well what the heck was I supposed to make with a pound of the potato like veggie????

Of course....some soup! Many pins on Pinterest came up with Gratins, but on a snowy Wyoming day in the middle of winter...I opt for some soup. One of my all time favorite soups is the Zuppa Toscana from the Olive Garden. I have perfected the soup and it is made frequently at this house! The soup took shape from a Zuppa base.


Ingredients:
1-2lbs of Jerusalem Artichokes
1/2 pound of bacon
1 lb pork sausage(you can use hot sausage)
1 onion
3-5 gloves of minced garlic
3 potatoes
1 quart of chicken stock/broth
1/2 cup of whipping cream
1 pint of fat free half and half
salt
pepper
fresh flat leaf parsley

Start of first by giving these little artichokes a bath and a good scrub down.
Then get some bacon frying in a hot sauce pan. I cut up my bacon into pieces using my kitchen shears when the bacon is semi frozen. It is way easier to handle.

Once it is fried, remove from the pan leaving behind the grease. Set the bacon aside...in my house this is harder than it seems.

Dice an onion and saute in the bacon grease. Add in the minced garlic. Saute until onion and garlic until fragrant and almost clear. Add the sausage to begin browning.

While you are in this process I placed the Artichokes into the microwave peel on. This was to expedite the process of cooking the artichokes longer in the soup because we didn't have the 45 minutes to wait for the artichokes to cook down. I put them on the potato setting on the microwave for 3 potatoes. Once finished, I peeled, cut up and placed in the pot of sausage, onion, and garlic. Cook the sausage through until no longer pink. Peel and cut up the potatoes and place in the pot.

Add the chicken stock and boil for 5-10 minutes. Then add the cream and half and half. Simmer for 15-20 minutes. While simmering dice up the parsley and add in. Let simmer for 3-5 minutes.

You are finished!
Serve with the reserved bacon from before(if there is any left). We also ate it with Sourdough bread for dipping! Yummy!~ I should have taken a picture of the finished product but I was too excited to eat!