For Meatless Monday Or A Seasonal Brunch: A Sunchoke And Potatoe Rosti With A Chickweed Salad

Sundays are meant for comfort food.

Like many, I like to enjoy leisurely, comfort-type meals, whether brunch or Sunday roasts. For brunch, waffles and eggs are pretty much tradition at this point, though I will venture into other dishes also. If eating eggs, I enjoy eating them with some potatoe dish that fits right into the comfort food department, like hash, or sauteed potatoes. Winter is in fact probably spud season by definition, and a great number of varieties can certainly be found at this time of year, so there are options for brunch.

Potatoes at the San Francisco Ferry Building Farmers Market (Little Organic Farm)

But on a recent market run, I found some sunchokes, also known as Jerusalem artichokes. I truly love their sweet flavors and have been hoarding them for multiple uses over the season. As I was thinking of what to do with them, it occurred to me one Sunday morning that they would be great in a potatoe rosti. Rosti, a rather simple potatoe dish, is surprisingly not often thought of for brunch. But it is a great accompaniment to a fried egg.

Grated potatoes and sunchokes for the rosti.

To make the rosti, I grated about 2 large potatoes (rose and yellow finns for example) and 3 cups of sunchokes. I salted the mix to help drain some of their liquid, and then squeezed hands full at a time to extract as much moisture as possible. Meanwhile, I heated some olive oil and a little butter in a saute pan.

Finished rosti.

The mix was then added and pressed, again, hands full at a time, onto the pan over medium heat. The rosti was left to cook on that side for about 8-10', then transferred to a plate, and flipped back in the pan to cook the other side for about 5-6' with a little more oil and butter (both sides need to be golden brown).

Chickweed at the San Francisco Ferry Building Farmers Market (Marin Roots Organic)

To serve with the rosti, I fried an egg (from pasture raised hens :)) and made a simple chickweed salad. Chickweed, an edible weed, has been back at the SF Ferry Building Farmers Market for a little while, and is always welcome. It has a slightly grassy taste but is delicious slightly seasoned or combined with pomegranates for example. For this brunch, I mixed it with roasted white acorn squash, drizzled it with olive oil, lemon juice and seasoned with salt and pepper, simply.

Brunch!

The rosti was deliciously sweet while maintaining the "panfried" potato flavor typical of rostis, and perfect with the runny egg. The salad added a little freshness, and I also added a piece of persimmon bread (an experiment that turned out well - perhaps another post :)). So, this was a comforting plate for a Sunday brunch. And for a Meatless Monday dinner too!

By the way:

• The rosti could be seasoned or finished with herbs: parsley, chives, sage, and even thyme for example.
• I also used smoked sea salt, because, it really tastes good :).
• If you are in NYC, an excellent egg brunch with veggie hash can be had at Community in the Upper West Side. And the pancakes never disappoint either...:)
• The dishes are all gluten-free, can be made dairy-free (without using butter to saute the rosti), and will satisfy vegetarian eaters too.

Piled High Green Veggie Multigrain Waffle Sandwich

I had picked up some stunning striped green tomatoes at the Farmers Market

The sign by them said they were great for (B)LT's... Right there I was sold, both on the produce and on what to do with them. During the rest of that run, I also picked up a few other green veggies and so it was that the idea of an all green veggie sandwich started to grow. And it was sealed after a busy but nice Sunday in Oakland, going among other places to the Eat Real Festival and catching the People's Climate March rally assembling by Lake Merritt on the way to the Oakland Museum of California (a nice place to spend an interesting and informative afternoon with kiddos). At the Eat Real Festival, I got to try some fine fries from one of the vendors (so sorry, forgot to write down the name but I will try and search!) - loved their chunky cut and the fried herbs they were coated in...

After all this, I was in the mood for a breakfast for dinner fare. So back in the kitchen, I whipped up some gluten free waffles and proceeded to get my greens prep'ed for some piled high green veggie multigrain waffle sandwiches (a mouthful name in itself! :)).

Veggies included said green tomatoes, sunflower sprouts, really fresh gem lettuce leaves, and some chives, all from the Farmers Market run. I also made some hummus to add a little more protein and use as a sauce of sort for the veggies.

To make the waffles I used the following homemade (and made from scratch :)) multigrain flour mix: 1/2c. masa harina, 1/4c. almond flour, 1/4c. buckwheat flour, 1/4c. arrow root, 3/4c. brown rice flour. I put this mix along with 2 eggs, 1 & 1/2 cup almond milk, a pinch of salt, 1 & 1/2 tbsp maple syrup, 1/4 c vegetable oil (1/2 canola & 1/2 olive oil), and 4 tsp baking powder in my food processor and blended until smooth. Then poured 2-3 large tbsp of batter per waffle in the waffle maker,  just enough to have one side well formed and the other non completely filled and a little flat.

To assemble the sandwich, I put one waffle face completely formed down, spread some hummus on top, sprinkled some chives, added slices of tomato, sprinkled some more chives, arranged some microgreens and gem lettuce leaves, then closed with another waffle. Of course, salt and pepper were sprinkled on the layers along the way.

The result was definitely a mouthful, but a satisfying one. Couldn't have found a better way to mix comfort and veggie love on a Sunday evening. All real food! :)

By the way:

• All (organic) greens were from the Berkeley Farmers Market, and those beautiful green tomatoes from Happy Boy Farms.
• I like to make my own GF flour blends to see what works for me and what works well for what I am trying to bake or cook. And I also get to choose providers and sources, and experiment with different grains. So, I personally prefer this approach and would recommend it. This being said there are some really good GF mix vendors so of course, using these would be good too if that is what you prefer. And if you do not need to eat gluten-free, you can change the flour mix too. I'd still keep the buckweat and masa harina, and use spelt or wholewheat flour.
• You could use any other green veggie blend of your liking.
• Some green goddess dressing, tahini sauce or yoghurt sauce (if you can/like to eat dairies), or even mayo, would be great with this also. Planning on trying one of these next time.
• This dish is low in FODMAPs, gluten-free, dairy-free, and will make Meatless Monday, real food, comfort food, conscious, healthy and vegetarian eaters happy too! (win win win win... ;)).
• One more thing: if you are near Oakland next year, I can certainly recommend the Eat Real Festival - a large and varied line up of vendors and food trucks at Jack London Square and a good time to sample real and local foods!