Inspired by my and Jacques’ shared love of mushrooms and foraging, this flavorful and unique gazpacho is made with porcini and cinnamon caps that I picked myself, in and around my Colorado-based home. Local mushrooms, house-made oat milk, sunchokes (also known as Jerusalem artichokes) are blended into a rich gazpacho and drizzled with browned butter. You can substitute vegan butter or drizzle with extra virgin olive oil to make this dish, deliciously vegan.

Sunchoke and Oat Milk Gazpacho with Porcinis and Brown Butter

Recipe details

Serves

4

Use caution when picking mushrooms as wild mushrooms should not be eaten unless they have been carefully examined and determined to be edible by a mushroom expert.

For the Sunchoke and Oat Milk Gazpacho

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoon olive oil
  • 2 shallots, thinly sliced
  • 2 cloves of fermented black garlic
  • Sautéed Porcini Mushrooms, recipe follows
  • 6 whole sunchokes, peeled and quartered
  • Oat Milk, recipe follows
  • Kosher salt
  • Freshly ground white or black pepper
  • 2 teaspoons sherry vinegar
  • ½ cup unsalted butter
  • Sunchoke Chips, recipe follows
  • Citrus marigold and other organic flowers, for garnish, optional

Method

  1. For the soup, heat the olive oil in a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat. Add the shallots, black garlic and half of the sautéed porcinis, and sauté until the shallots are translucent and the mushrooms are very tender. Add the sunchokes and oat milk and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the sunchokes are fork tender, about 10 minutes. Pour the soup into the cup of a blender and blend until smooth. Season with salt, pepper and the sherry vinegar and blend again. If your mixture is still a little grainy, pass the gazpacho through a fine strainer into a clean saucepan.
  2. While the soup is cooking, make the browned butter. In a small saucepan, melt the butter and bring it to a boil over medium heat. Cook the butter until the milk separates, smells nutty and the solids turn to a golden brown, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and pour into a small bowl.
  3. To serve, reheat the remaining sautéed mushrooms in the sauté pan, then divide them between 4 warm bowls. Pour the hot soup around the mushrooms and drizzle with the browned butter. Garnish with sunchoke chips and marigold petals.

For the Sautéed Porcini Mushrooms

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 8 ounces porcini mushrooms, sliced
  • 2 sprigs thyme
  • 2 sprigs oregano
  • Kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper

Method

  1. Heat the oil in a medium skillet over high heat. Add the porcini mushrooms, thyme, oregano, and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring often, until they are tender, 5 to 10 minutes. Remove the thyme and oregano sprigs and reserve the porcinis.

For the Oat Milk

Ingredients

  • ½ cup old fashioned oats
  • 2 pitted medjool dates
  • 1 quart ice cold water

Method

  1. In the cup of a blender combine the oats, dates and water and blend until smooth. Set a very fine strainer over a deep bowl or line a strainer with two or three layers of cheesecloth. Pour the oat mixture into the strainer and allow it to strain by gravity, do not force the milk through, this will take about 10 minutes.

For the Sunchoke Chips

Ingredients

  • Vegetable oil, for frying
  • 1 sunchoke, thinly sliced
  • Kosher salt

Method

  1. Line a plate with paper towels. Pour oil to ¼-inch depth in a skillet. Heat to about 250°F. Add the sunchoke slices and fry until golden brown, about 1 minute. Transfer to the paper towels and sprinkle with salt.

Black Garlic is generally sold in jars as fermented black garlic. It has an umami rich, sweet and slightly sour, mild garlicy flavor. You can find black garlic at specialty food stores or online.