Smashed Idaho® Potatoes with Sunchokes, Roasted Garlic & Spinach

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds Idaho® potatoes, washed but unpeeled
• 1 head garlic
• ½ pound sunchokes (Jerusalem artichokes)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• ½ teaspoon fresh cracked pepper
• 1 ½ cups heavy cream, divided into ½ cup measure and 1 cup measure portions
• 4 tablespoons Country Crock® Margarine
• 3 cups packed baby spinach
• ice water bath for blanched baby spinach
• additional salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Make potatoes: Place 2 pounds of unpeeled, cleaned, Idaho® potatoes in cold water. Heat water to just below boiling. Water will be steaming but not moving. Cook potatoes in steaming water until fork tender: about 1 1/2 hours.
2. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Toss sunchokes in olive oil and salt and pepper. Place on sheet pan.
3. While potatoes are cooking on stovetop, roast sunchokes in oven at 350 degrees F until soft. Also place head of garlic in square of aluminum foil and roast in oven next to sunchokes until soft.
4. Remove garlic from oven and set aside.
5. Turn oven down to 325 degrees F.
6. Remove sunchokes from oven and puree with 1/2 cup cream, using immersion blender, or food processor.
7. When fork tender, remove potatoes from water. Place in warm 325 degree F oven to dry potato skins.
8. While potato skins dry, heat second pot of water for blanching spinach, on stovetop to boiling.
9. While waiting for spinach water to boil, in a small saucepot, melt margarine with remaining cup of cream until hot. Set aside.
10. Blanch spinach in boiling water for two minutes. Using a strainer, remove spinach from water and plunge into ice water. Squeeze out water. Puree spinach using a food processor or immersion blended. Set aside.
11. Remove potatoes from oven. Leave skins on. In a large pot, smash potatoes with a potato masher adding small amounts of the hot cream/margarine mixture as you go until potatoes are fluffy. Add garlic and sunchoke puree and smash more. Fold in pureed spinach. Adjust seasoning adding salt and pepper to taste.