Or, What Liz does when she has a final tomorrow and is procrastinating.

Kim (@ohsosinister) asked me this yesterday:

“Heeeeey Liz: How do you do up your artichokes? I’ve only ever had artichoke hearts from, like, a jar. Ha ha. Teach me your ways and recipes! :)”
Here we go!

 Artichokes have been my favorite vegetable since my parents introduced me to them as a kid. They are one of those delayed gratification foods, where each leaf gives you a small taste of the fantastic heart inside. They are very easy to make, low in calories and have some protein and fiber too. This is how I make them:

Preparing the Choke: Slice off the stem so the bottom is even. Believe me, the green stuff in the stem is super bitter and NOT tasty at all.

Optional: Take some kitchen shears and snip off the spikey tops of each leaf. You can use a sharp knife to just slice the top off to make it go faster. I’ll be honest, I don’t really do this anymore. I have a feeling my parents did it because it was safer to serve to us kids, and if I’m in a hurry I skip this step.

Steaming the Choke: I grew up rinsing it under the sink and shaking off the excess water, then wrapping it in plastic wrap and sticking it in the microwave. I know some people have issues with heating plastic wrap so you have 2 options. If you don’t care, use the microwave and cook on high for about 5-7 minutes depending on how hot it gets.  Or, use a pot of shallow water with a steaming basket and steam for about 6 mins.

Dip: The best way to eat one of these puppies IMHO is simply pulling off each leaf and dipping the non spikey end in something tasty and scraping the flesh off with your teeth, then discarding it. It takes awhile to eat, but is so worth it. My dips of choice are: 1 part melted butter or margarine, 1 part lemon juice. Or, 1 part balsamic vinegar to 1 part mayo. This one is my new favorite! I was skeptical at first, but when I tried it, I was hooked. You don’t need very much, so don’t feel guilty about the mayo part. I usually use about 1 tbsp of light mayo (which is 45 calories) and it’s the right amount for a normal sized artichoke.

Getting to the Heart: Now this is the tricky(ish) part. Once you’ve gotten to the inside, the leaves will get smaller and sharper and will be about an inch or two in length. These are pretty hard to eat without cutting your mouth up so just pull them off and discard. Underneath is the weird hairy stuff that covers the heart. You can eat this if you want, but I find the texture is weird and removing it is worth it.  You have two options to do so:

1. Take a paring knife or a spoon and scrape the hairy stuff away from the heart
2. If it was cooked well enough, it should just scrape off easily with your fingers, just be careful though, sometimes the top part of the heart will come off with it. It’s messy, so most people prefer using utensils

Once this is done, dip that sucker into your tasty stuff of choice and enjoy!
I hope that was informative!