Did you know that people used to call artichoke ‘a vegetable-flower’ as it was often a part of home interiors? The edible thistle has been a popular meal in Ancient Greece, Egypt and Rome. If you remember our previous blog post about it, you may already know that it’s actually very healthy. Read more here!
However, a lot of people say they just can’t ‘get along’ with artichoke’s hard-to-trim body. For that reason today we’ve tried to simplify that process for you in 8 single steps. Keep going, there’s nothing scary about it! In fact, once you get it, it would be a piece of cake.
OK, let’s get this started:
- Here’s the thing – what you can actually consume from artichoke is the so called heart. We suggest you supply yourself with latex or other protective gloves, wide and sharp knife, scissors, a small knife and half a lemon.
- When in contact with air the cut artichoke loses its natural color. That’s why you should prepare yourself a bowl of water and lemon juice. You can put the already sliced parts there.
- Before cleaning the vegetable, rinse it with cold water. Be careful, though, because artichoke’s leaves are pretty sharp – that’s why you’d need the gloves.
- Let it dry and here’s where the wide, sharp knife comes into operation. Cut the upper part – around 3-5cm of the top.
- With the scissors you can cut off the sharp edges of the leaves. Then, using a knife, take away the whole stem all the way to the base.
- If your recipe requires stuffing the artichoke, you’re almost done! All that’s left to do is for you to boil it for ½ hour, get rid of the purple inner part plus the bits underneath it and cook your recipe.
- However, in case you don’t wanna fill it, then you have more work to do. Pull off all the leaves until you get to the center where the gentle ones are hiding.
- With the small knife eliminate any remains from the rough leaves at the bottom. Slice the artichoke lengthwise in the middle and get the purple part away.
