Recipe for Smoked Lentil Sunchoke Cake with Black Garlic Hemp Seed Sauce

Sunchoke lentil cake

1 cup dried lentils (Chef Patterson prefers Beluga or French green)

4 cups vegetable stock or water

1 piece of kombu (kelp)

¼ cup coconut cream

4 sunchokes sliced thin

1 Tablespoon olive oil

salt to taste

Bring lentils, stock and kombu to a boil and reduce to a simmer. (Kombu or kelp reduces the gas effects of legumes.) When lentils are at the al dente’ stage, turn it off and add a ¼ tsp of salt, cover and set aside.

Meanwhile toss sunchokes with olive oil and salt. Fill sunchokes about half way into six well-oiled 2-inch metal ring molds (or metal cookie cutters) on a sheet pan and bake at 350 until lightly brown, about 15 minutes. 

Next, strain the lentils and prepare them for the smoker. There are a few ways to smoke the lentils, the best way is with a smoker. Place in a fine strainer, like a flour sifter, and smoke for about 1 hour. If you don’t have a smoker you can cook the lentils using a black smoky tea (such as Lapsang Souchong), you first make a strong brew and then cook your lentils in the brewed tea.

Mix smoked lentils and coconut milk and fill up the sunchoke ring molds with the lentil mixture.

Black Garlic Hempseed Sauce

½ onion, diced

½ head of black garlic

1/3 cup lemon juice

1 cup hemp seeds

1 cup stock

salt to taste

Sauté onion until slightly carmalized, add black garlic, stock and hemp seeds with a pinch of salt and simmer for about 15 minutes.

Add lemon juice puree using a blender. (Use a towel to cover blender, and start blending on the lowest speed.  Please be careful as hot liquid can blow up.)

For garnish

1 bottle balsamic (nice and cheap)

1 jar caper berries

1 container of micros (watercress is a great substitute)

Place one bottle over low heat and reduce until it is a syrup consistency. Be careful to watch it closely at the end so as not to burn it. The easiest, safest way I have found if you have a dehydrator is to put the balsamic into a glass dish and dehydrate over night.

To plate

Place cakes in the oven to reheat for 5 minutes. Place sauce on plate put cake in the middle and garnish with micros, caperberries and balsamic reduction and enjoy!

Read our full article about hemp seeds here.