The weather has been all over the place lately and with that, so have my eating habits. It seems that this warm one day, freezing the next pattern also seems to send me into a pattern of home-cooked healthy meal one day, mac and cheese at my favorite local spot the next. On one such recent warm day, my body had had enough of eating out, so when I awoke to the sun shining, I immediately jumped from my bed and headed to the market for some breakfast inspiration. Low and behold I cam across a vegetable that I have been itching to play with.

I’ve never cooked sunchokes (or jerusalem artichokes) so I grabbed a bag of them, along with some fresh sorrel and returned home to a kitchen of my favorite staple ingredients, including eggs, lemon and a fresh block of parmesan. If you’ve never had a sunchoke, the best way to describe it is the taste of an artichoke and the texture of a potato. Sorrel, a unique leafy green, looks like any other salad leaf, except that when you take a bite of it, it emits a tangy-almost sour or lemon-like sensation on your taste buds. I thinly sliced the sunchokes and sauteed them with a little bit of garlic and olive oil. When finished, I mixed the sunchokes with the sorrel, tossed in some fresh grated parmesan and lemon zest and topped it all with a poached egg and of course- more cheese and lemon zest (two of my favorite ingredients). My impromptu breakfast hit the spot and kickstarted my relaxing Sunday. Here’s how I made it…

5 sunchokes thinly sliced
Handful of sorrel chopped or torn
Zest of one lemon
2 tbs grapeseed oil
juice of half a lemon
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup fresh grated parmesan or grana padana cheese
2 small cloves of garlic chopped
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 egg
2 tbs white vinegar

Heat garlic in olive oil over medium-high heat for a 1-2 minutes and then add sliced sunchokes. Toss and cover and let sit over medium heat, tossing occasionally. While sunchokes are cooking, bring 2 cups of water with 2 tbs white vinegar to a boil. When sunchokes are soft and finished cooking, remove from pan and mix sunchokes, garlic and sorrel together. In a separate small bowl, mix together grapeseed oil, lemon juice and a pinch of salt and pepper. Dress sunchokes and sorrel with dressing and top with lemon zest and parmesan. Reduce boiling water and vinegar to a simmer and crack egg into it, scooping the whites towards the yolk. let simmer for 3 1/2 minutes. Remove egg with slotted spoon, place on top of warm salad and top egg with a bit more lemon zest and parmesan.