Fermented Sunchoke Dip (Vegan) for Fiesta Friday’s First Anniversary

January 23, 2015 by Hilda 55 Comments

It’s Friday, and that means it is time to head over to Angie’s place at The Novice Gardener for Fiesta Friday. This week is even more special though, since it is the 52nd, thus completing a full year of fun, recipe-sharing and meeting dozens of talented bloggers who all contribute to making this such a popular and successful event. To mark this milestone our fabulous hostess Angie is dedicating two weeks to the celebration. This first week we are asked to bring the starters, i.e. drinks and appetizers, while next week we will present the main dishes and desserts. I have noticed there has been a lot of buzz over the past few days, so I expect it is going to be a smash. You are welcome to join us and bring an original dish of your own by Wednesday. Just follow the simple guidelines as outlined here. If you haven’t prepared anything, you are still welcome to come and join the party where you will see what all the buzz is about.

As co-host, along with my compatriot from the west Julianna at Foodie on Board, I will try to make myself useful, so if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.

I would also like to extend a big thank you to Angie for organizing this weekly party. She has been such an inspiration, and provided a venue where we have been able to make new friends, share ideas and support for one another, and jolly up the whole blogging experience for so many. I therefore suggest we help ourselves to a drink and toast our dear host before going any further!

And now for my offering to the celebration. It is an appetizer to be served with crackers or vegetables, inspired by that ever so popular recipe for artichoke dip. I have made mine with fermented Jerusalem artichokes, a rich (creamless) creamy dip with lots of flavour and healthful at the same time.

I have been using Jerusalem artichokes, or sunchokes, quite a bit, but some readers are still not convinced to eat them. I took the recipe for the ferment from this post where the problems of sunchokes are candidly outlined, and it seems that fermenting them resolves the problem. I believe it!

If you are not familiar with this odd little vegetable, this is what it looks like.

Once I fermented a jar of them, the dip was simple enough to make.

I used one part sunchokes, 1/2 part raw cashews soaked in water, and 1/4 part steamed and chopped greens. I used Swiss chard, but spinach, kale, arugula, or just about any green would work well. I blended the drained nuts and sunchokes until smooth, and then mixed in the greens. There is enough flavour and seasoning in the ferment that you need add nothing else, other than perhaps a little garnish of paprika or sumac powder.