an awesome new find.

A week ago I had never heard of Fresh Picks and now I'm convinced it's the best thing ever. Fresh Picks allows you to order the freshest produce from local farms and have it delivered right to your doorstep. I like to compare the Fresh Picks box to the basket on the Food Network show Chopped (yep, I'm cool) - So many new ingredients that I would never think to pick up at the grocery store. It's pretty phenomenal. The price is also totally doable. 

This week my chopped basket Fresh Picks box contained bibb lettuce, spinach, watercress, asparagus, ramps, and sunchokes. Some of these are ingredients I would definitely pick up for dinner - but some were completely foreign - like sunchoke. 

WTF is a sunchoke? Great question. 

They look similar to a ginger root, which is what I first assumed they were. Their texture is very similar to that of a potato, with a slightly sweeter taste. Here's what I came up with in the chopped kitchen - aka in my kitchen with a fiance who humors me. 

Here's what you'll need... 

2 cups of sunchokes, peeled and chopped into bite size pieces (1/2 inch)

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 tablespoon of butter, melted

1 tsp dried thyme

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Here's what to do... 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Toss olive oil and spices with sunchokes to coat. Roast for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Season with additional salt and pepper as needed. 

Menu idea...

I served my sunchokes besides roasted pork tenderloin and a large green salad! 

Next up...

Asparagus and spinach frittata using the rest of the ingredients from my Fresh Picks box!