Artichokes with Lemony-Chive Dipping Sauce

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Vegetarian/Gluten-Free/Nut-Free

Skill Level: Beginner

Yield: 3-4 appetizer/snack-sized servings

Prep Time: 10-15 minutes

Cook Time: 30-40 minutes

Equipment Needed:

• Cutting board 

• Chef's knife 

• Kitchen shears

• Large pot with tight-fitting lid

• Steamer basket

• Small mixing bowl
  

The Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 2 whole artichokes (the ones pictured here were about 4-inches in diameter, but see tips section below if you are using artichokes of a different size)

• 1 lemon, sliced into 5-6 slices

• 1/3 cup mayonnaise

• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

• 1 large or 2 small garlic cloves, minced

• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

• 1 tablespoon chopped chives, plus extra for garnish if desired

• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Procedure:

1. Prepare the artichokes: Rinse the artichokes under cool water, then cut off the bottom 1/4-inch of each artichoke stem. Pull off any small or rough-looking leaves on the bottom row (closest to the stem) of each artichoke. Use a sharp knife to slice off the very top of each artichoke, removing about 1/2-inch. Use a kitchen shears to trim off the top thorny portion of each artichoke leaf of the remaining leaves (this protects you from getting pricked when you eat them).

2. Add about 2-inches of water to the bottom of a large pot or Dutch oven. Add the sliced lemon to the water. Place a steamer basket inside the pot, then add your artichokes to the steamer basket.

3. Cover the pot and place on the stovetop over medium-high heat. Steam artichokes for about 40 minutes. Check for doneness by pulling one of the leaves (you can do this with a tongs if they are too hot to handle). If it easily comes off with little-to-no resistance, your artichokes are ready. If there is a lot of resistance, continue to steam, re-checking every 5 minutes or so.

4. While the artichokes are steaming, prepare the lemony-chive dipping sauce (this recipe makes about 1/2 cup of sauce):

In a small bowl, mix together the mayonnaise, fresh lemon juice, minced garlic, Dijon mustard and chopped chives with a big pinch of Kosher salt and a couple of grinds of black pepper. Taste your sauce, and adjust salt and pepper to your liking. Garnish with additional chopped chives, if desired. Store leftover sauce in the refrigerator for 1-2 weeks.

To Serve: There are a couple ways you could present your artichokes to your guests. One would be to cut off the remainder of the stem so that you are able to stand the artichokes up. This makes it easier to access the leaves on all sides of each artichoke. If you do this, be sure to peel and then slice the stems so that you can serve them along with the artichoke, as they are also edible (and delicious).

Another way would be to leave the stems intact as I did in the photo above. This does present a bit of a problem because you will have to turn the artichokes a couple of times to get at all of the leaves, but I think they are so pretty and rustic-looking with the stems on :) if you serve them this way, again, just be sure to peel and slice the stems when you are preparing to eat the heart.

Adjusting for your diet: If you follow a vegan diet, you could substitute vegan mayonnaise for regular mayonnaise in the dipping sauce.

Eating a whole artichoke: This is one of those foods that does not present an obvious solution regarding how to go about eating it. My roommate in college taught me how to eat an artichoke, and if you've never done it before, now I'll teach you!

1. Pluck a leaf and take a peek. There are no edible portions on the outside of the leaf. Flip it over to look at the underside, and you will see a very small amount of "meat" at the very bottom of the leaf (the portion that was attached to the artichoke). That is the only part you will eat on each leaf. If you are going to eat the leaf with sauce (which you totally should), dip that little portion into the sauce. Next, hold onto the non-meaty end of the leaf, and put about half of it in your mouth biting down lightly. You should be holding the leaf between your teeth but not trying to bit through the leaf.

2. Pull the leaf all the way out of your mouth, scraping the "meat" out with your teeth. I would liken this process to eating edamame in the shell, if you have ever done that.

3. Repeat as necessary, until you feel you've gotten most or all of the edible portion. Again, it will be a very small amount.

4. Keep going until you are out of meaty leaves, and are left only with the papery purple and white leaves. You can pluck these out and discard (or scrape these with your teeth too, you'll get some essence of artichoke there).

5. If your stems remained attached to your artichokes up to this point, go ahead and cut them off now before you tackle the next step. Peel and slice up your stem to serve alongside the heart.

6. Next, you will see a bunch of fine hairs-this is called the "choke." The choke is not edible, but underneath the choke is the heart, which is kind of like the prize you earn after you do the work.

Use a butter knife or the edge of a spoon to scrape away the hairy choke, and discard.

7. You should now be left with only the heart-arguably the best part! You can determine how you want to handle it from here, but I usually just quarter it and then use a fork to spear, dip, and enjoy.

Edible heart pieces on the left, inedible choke pieces on the right.

Tips:

• The artichoke variety I've used here are the classic green globe artichokes; I have not experimented with other types of artichokes.

• Look for artichokes that are green with healthy looking leaves, feel slightly heavy for their size when you pick them up, and are very firm when you give them a little squeeze. I follow these guidelines when selecting artichokes rather than worrying too much about the size of the artichoke. If you won't be preparing your artichoke immediately, store them in the refrigerator.

• The size of you artichoke will determine your cooking time. The artichokes I used in these photos were pretty large; I've steamed artichokes that were probably 2.5-3 inches in diameter that only took about 28 minutes to steam. If you're nervous you're going to overcook, start checking your artichokes around 25 minutes and continue to check every 5 minutes until a leaf easily releases from the artichoke.

• If you don't have an extra lemon on hand, you could easily skip the step of putting the sliced lemon in the water during steaming; the flavor it imparts is probably pretty minimal but it sure smells nice :)

• Be sure to use fresh-squeezed lemon juice in the sauce, the bottled stuff will not work well here.

• Another way to serve these would be to slice them in half lengthwise after cooking. Again, I prefer the presentation of the whole artichoke, but you do you!

• Your artichokes just need to be able to fit in your steamer basket/pan in a single layer, so if you would like to steam more than two artichokes just plan accordingly.

The Story:

I am a giant fan of food you have to work for. A few of my favorite examples include crab legs, edamame, crawdads, pistachios, shrimp in the shell, and of course artichokes! There is something so satisfying about having to do a little something before you earn your treat.

As previously mentioned, my college roommate taught me how to eat artichokes. Her mom always made artichokes for her birthday, and she told me that I would always remember when artichokes are in season if I remembered when her birthday was :) they had a fun tradition of serving each person in the family their own individual artichoke with a side of melted butter for dipping as an appetizer, which I found to be so unique and special. You can usually find artichokes in grocery stores from mid-March until May in Minnesota.

The artichoke is not only fun to eat, but such a gorgeous piece of produce, with some health benefits to boot. Artichokes may aid in lowering cholesterol and blood pressure, support liver health, and contain some awesome nutrients such as folate, magnesium, and Vitamin C.

When I created this dipping sauce, I set out to make a creamy, decadent sauce that would provide some tang and brightness to this impressive-but-easy appetizer. I also wanted to use ingredients that I usually have on hand so I could whip it up whenever I wanted. I think this sauce would also be great as a topping on fish tacos, as a dipping sauce for vegetables, or even drizzled over a piece of grilled fish.

If you try out these easy artichokes with lemony-chive dipping sauce, be sure to let me know what you think!

Happy tasting!