While cooking, listen to this: Same Drugs - Chance the Rapper

Hello, sweater weather! It is about damn time that the city cooled down - don't get me wrong, I love my tank dresses and jelly sandals, but I am giving a hearty goodbye to 150 degree subway platforms and that terrible first drip of sweat down the back. You know what I'm talking about - why is that first drip so horrific?

Anyway, I usually eat soup all year round because it is DELICIOUS, but eating soup in the summer is a very different experience from eating it in the fall. In the summer, I eat soup with a fan in front of my face, enjoying my food but questioning my life choices. In the fall though, eating soup is an easy, delicious comfort in the face of cooling weather and darkening skies. Alyssa and I are very big fans of soup, and are constantly looking for new recipes.

Thanks to Alyssa's CSA we get a lot of produce that's well, weird. Take, for example, the sunchoke, which also exists under the alias of Jerusalem artichoke, which is really weird because there is no connection to Jerusalem and it is also not an artichoke. What can you do. But Alyssa got a bunch of these teeny tiny root-things, and I immediately remembered a soup recipe I had pinned years ago that I had always wanted to try, mostly because it's topped with caramelized shallots. I too would like to be topped with caramelized shallots.

This recipe comes from A House in the Hills, and not only is it stupid easy to make, but it's tasty too! I'll admit, I had never had sunchokes before, let a lone in soup, and was a little weirded out by the idea, but was pleasantly surprised. The shallots are, obviously, fucking bomb on top, and the fresh thyme brings an herby, earthy taste that's super complimentary to the sunchokes. Nature's sprinkles, if you will.

Happy fall, loves.

Love and meows, Rina

ROASTED SUNCHOKE SOUP WITH CARAMELIZED ONIONS

Yield: 2-3 servings

Active Cook Time: 20-25m | Inactive Cook Time: 1h | Total Cook Time: 1h 25m

Category: Soup, Vegan, Gluten-Free, Fall, Winter

Source: very slightly adapted from A House in the Hills

Special Equipment: immersion blender/high-speed blender/food processer

Ingredients

caramelized shallots:

4 large shallots, thinly sliced into half moons

4 Tablespoons neutral oil (grapeseed, avocado etc.), divided

soup:

3 ½ cups scrubbed, peeled & cubed sunchokes

3 cloves garlic*

1 medium onion, large dice

1 ½ cups non-dairy milk of choice

1 ½ cups vegetable broth

½ teaspoons salt, plus more to taste

Optional, fresh thyme, to garnish

*For the billionth time, use as much garlic as you want - sometimes 3 cloves just isn't enough!

Instructions

Caramelize the shallots: place a large saute pan over low heat and add the oil. When warm, add the shallots and stir to coat. Cook low and slow, stirring every 5 minutes or so, until they caramelize. This can take a loooooong time, but hang in there!

Roast the veggies: preheat the oven to 375 F. Place the sunchokes, garlic and onion onto a baking sheet, and drizzle with 2 Tablespoons of oil and some salt. No need for foil or parchment paper. Stir well to coat, and then place in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the veggies can be pierced easily with a fork.

Prepare the soup: in a medium pot, add the roasted veggies, non-dairy milk, broth and some salt. Place over high heat and bring to a low boil, then cook for 3-5 minutes.

Blend the soup: use an immersion blender directly in the pot to puree, or add to a high-speed blender and puree there.

To serve: ladle into bowls, top with the caramelized shallots and thyme (if using) and dig in.

To keep: the shallots should be made right before they're going to be used, since they'll lose some texture in a container, but the soup can be made in advance and stored in the fridge or freezer.