So we are going to attack artichokes at a different angle today. The leaves were good but I wanted to get at the heart of things and load up some flavor on the inside. I definitely took this recipe from The Mediterannean Dish and they have some tasty things going on. I have my eye on a nacho idea they have up and can’t keep my stomach from growling. Anyway, go check them out!
Roasting is definitely the traditional second half of the week on here but I had never thought of putting anything in foil to seal in flavors. More on that later, but I have to give a word of warning to anyone going to cut these open or trim them up.
See that purple bit in the middle there? Sure, it seems easy to just reach in and tear them out but don’t do it! Get a knife and fork and carve those out. They have little spikes on the tip of each leaf. You just want to scrape out the hairy part for some reason, I cooked them in the boiled artichokes but didn’t get a chance to try them since I was focused on the leaves.
The heart, I thought, was the collection of leaves near the red bit in there but it is actually below the hairy part. The solid white part is the heart which is a super tiny part to go crazy for it seems. I got a flashback of leeks where I had to chop off so much other stuff to get to what I needed.
Anyway, you nestle some garlic into the spot you cleared out from the hairy part which is actually called the choke. I left the red leaves in one and took them out in the others after I got stabbed like twelve times just diving in there. Put some lemon, olive oil with salt and pepper and wrap it up in foil to make it nice and tender. They smelled fantastic.
So I’m still on this Whole30 thing so I didn’t make the vinaigrette that goes on top because of the honey, nor did I sprinkle feta cheese. But I guarantee that probably makes it the tastiest thing in the world so I need someone else to make it and let me know. I did put some shallot and capers on top though to not just make it a garlic-y oily thing, even though that combo tastes amazing.
How did they taste though? They tasted good. Every alternative recipe I’ve found seems to have them breaded, fried, or smothered in cheese and as delicious I know that would be, you need to give some time to just eating artichoke itself because you won’t be disappointed. The work to cut it and prepare it might be a bit off putting, but if you got a fancy meal coming up I definitely think you should get some artichokes to serve up because it is easier than you think.
Try 52 