Many Americans are familiar with what an artichoke looks like, but have never attempted to cook one at home. They really should not be as they are very nutritious and can be a lot of fun to eat. High levels of fiber, vitamin C, folic acid, and biotin are found in artichokes. They are also a good source of vitamin A, and potassium. There isn’t much to cooking artichokes.  Here is a basic example of how to do it.

This vegetable from the thistle family does have thorns just like any other thistle. The thorns are at the tips of the leaves and very easy to remove with a pair of kitchen scissors. Because the upper leaves are small and don’t have much flesh to them, you can cut the upper fourth to third of the artichoke off.

Grab a large pot and begin to boil some water in it.  You can salt the water and add a large slice of lemon to it if you wish. Place the chokes in boiling water. You will leave these in the water until the leaves are easily pulled off this could be as long as 50 minutes. Remove your artichoke and allow to drain.

I like to melt some butter and add lemon, salt, and pepper to it to dip my artichokes in. What you then do is pull off a leaf you will only be scraping off the bottom part of the leaf that was connected to the artichoke. Dip it into the melted butter and use your teeth to scrape out the white flesh.

Once you have eaten all of the fleshy parts of the leaves you will be left with a fuzzy looking “choke”. You will need to get a spoon and scrape off the fuzz. Don’t eat the fuzz. Under this fuzz is the heart of the artichoke. The heart is very good to eat. The stem may or may not be to your liking.  This is personal preference. I don’t prefer artichoke stems myself.

Want to have a different food for date night?  Artichokes may be the way to go.  You can feed each other leaves for an evening of fun. Though it may seem tedious to make and eat an artichoke, the nutritional punch they offer is well worth the effort.









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