Cooking an artichoke is not super popular and it may not seem easy, but its refreshing flavor is very rewarding. Instead of eating artichokes the classic way … scraping the cooked leaves with your teeth … use the flesh to make artichoke aioli. This easy recipe happened because I wanted to revisit this often-forgotten edible flower.
Here’s a brief a back story. I grew up eating, and hating, artichokes. It wasn’t until my adult years that I realized the problem was the way my parents cooked them. They stuffed the leaves with breadcrumbs and oil, then used the pressure cooker to break them down. Afterwards the whole family sat in front of the TV scraping the flesh off the leaves with our teeth as we watched Murder She Wrote. I just didn’t get it. Looking back, I now understand we were mostly eating breadcrumbs and I had no idea what an artichoke tasted like until I actually learned how to cook and got into marinated artichoke hearts.
I labelled this post “quick and easy” because I’m cutting corners by using olive oil mayonnaise. Classically making an aioli from scratch using raw eggs is something I’m not comfortable with for food safety reasons. And dealing with a tough, spiny artichoke may not seem easy if you’re new to the process, but hang in there! Once you remove the tough parts and steam the leaves until they’re fork tender, you simply scrape the flesh with a paring knife. You’re then left with a refreshing, nutty, paste-like ingredient. The mayonnaise is simply a way to “stretch it out”. This is perfect to spread on sandwiches, or to use as a dip for my Fried Green Tomato Bites and my Herb Roasted Potatoes.
Steaming artichokes is super easy. To speed up the cooking time, cut them in half lengthwise and remove the spiny center (the choke) ahead of time. The choke is not edible and you would need to remove it later anyway, so there’s no reason to waste time cooking it.
After artichoke leaves get trimmed and steamed, their flesh gets scraped, mashed, then mixed into the aioli.
To mince garlic, simply chop it up real fine then flatten it with the edge of your knife.
Artichoke Aioli, Quick and Easy
Ingredients
- 2 large artichokes, to make 1/4 cup of artichoke flesh from the leaves, hearts and stems
- 1/2 cup olive oil mayonnaise
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- To prepare the artichokes, cut off the top 1/3 crosswise where it starts to narrow. Pull off any small outer leaves and snip the pointy ends of all the leaves. Cut off any wilted part of the stem. Refer to photos below.
- Cut the artichokes in half lengthwise and remove the tiny inner leaves and the hairy fibers, known as the choke. If you want, you can rub lemon juice on all cut surfaces to avoid browning. Refer to previous photos above.
- Place the halves in a steamer, inner side down. Steam the artichokes until the largest leaves fall off easily and the stem is fork tender. Remove from heat.
- In a small bowl, collect all of the edible flesh. Use a paring knife to scrape the flesh from the meatiest part of each leaf, one by one. Also, with your fingers squeeze out the flesh from the stem and heart (the base area where all the leaves come together). Mash all the artichoke flesh so it is an even consistency.
- Into the small bowl, combine the olive oil mayonnaise, lemon juice, minced garlic, and salt. Stir until thoroughly mixed, and serve.
- Yield: approximately 1 cup
Artichoke Aioli in one of my signature vegetarian sandwiches.
