How To Cook Artichokes

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Love artichokes or want to try cooking artichokes but don’t know where to start? Then worry not as I will show you all the steps for learning How to Cook Artichokes.

Like my Instant Pot Artichokes, this steamed artichokes recipe needs only 2 essential ingredients to make on the stovetop or in the Instant Pot.

They are as easy to make and as loved by the whole family as these Jamaican Steamed Cabbage, a Green Beans Almondine.

Artichokes are a delicious and nutritious vegetable that is fun to serve up the tender meat as a dipping appetizer, healthy snack, or tasty side dish during the spring months. And the delectable, completely edible artichoke hearts also give tons of flavor when you add them to hearty pasta dishes, refreshing salads, wraps, soups, and more.

What Are Artichokes?

Artichokes are the bud of a thistle plant and have prickly leaves and belong to the thistle family. Only certain parts of the artichoke are edible. The fibrous, dark green outer leaves are not edible, but the bottom of the leaves has fleshy meat that is.

As you work towards the centre of the vegetable, the leaves get smaller with purple tips. The tender artichoke hearts in the center are the tastiest bit of this healthy vegetable.

Eating artichokes or artichoke heart dipped in some melted butter is just the best thing ever.

Why Make This Recipe

• Easy – Just 2 ingredients and a minimal amount of prep work are all that’s needed.
• Adaptable – this tasty veggie is perfect for serve with all sorts of dipping sauce flavors.
• Dietary – suitable for low carb, keto, gluten free, and vegan diets.

Ingredient Notes

• Fresh Artichokes – this recipe uses the whole artichoke.
• Water – for steaming.
• Optional ingredients – lemon juice (to help stop oxidization), butter, and garlic to make a dipping sauce.

How To Choose Fresh Artichokes

• Bright green artichokes with tightly packed leaves (without any brown spots) are the freshest; their leaves open up as they lose freshness.
• The artichokes should feel heavy when you pick them up for their size. Lighter ones have dried out a bit.
• If the artichokes squeak when you squeeze them, that means they are fresh.

How To Prepare Fresh Artichokes

These need a little prepping before cooking artichokes in Instant Pot.

1. Using a sharp knife, cut the stem off flush at the base of the artichoke.
2. Carefully cut off a little bit of the top of each artichoke, making it flat.
3. Then use kitchen scissors or kitchen shears to trip the tips/thorns off remaining leaves.
4. Rinse artichokes under cold running water and gently separate the leaves so the water can get in and remove any debris.

How To Cook Artichokes

Get the complete ingredients list and instructions from the recipe card below.

Steaming

1. Fill a large pot with one inch of water.
2. Place a steamer basket or a small trivet inside the saucepan (I have a small one that is the size of an artichoke and just use that).
3. Bring the water to a boil, then use tongs to carefully place the artichokes on the trivet with the stem side down.
4. Let the water come up to a boil again, then reduce to a simmer, cover with a lid, and let it steam for 20 to 25 minutes, or until leaves pull easily from the center.
5. Best serve hot or cool slightly with melted butter.

Boil

1. Half fill a saucepan with salted water and bring to a boil.
2. Add the fresh artichoke to the boiling water.
3. Reduce to a simmer, and cook for about 25 to 30 minutes or until you can easily pull a leaf from the center.
4. Transfer the boiled artichokes to a bowl or platter and then serve.

Cook Them In The Instant Pot

Want to cook these in the pressure cooker instead. Then head on over to this Instant Pot Artichokes Post to find out more

Tips And Variations

• Make sure when you are steaming artichokes or cooking artichokes you use ones of the same size together so that they cook at the same rate.
• Larger artichokes will take longer to cook than smaller ones.
• The are finished cooking when you can easily remove one of the leaves.
• If boiling, add flavor to the inches of water with items like a bay leaf, garlic and more.
• It’s important that you do not eat the inedible fuzzy choke part; check out the details on this below.
• Squeeze some fresh lemon juice on the prepared artichokes to help slow down the oxidization process before cooking (to avoid them turning brown and look unappealing). You can also let the artichokes sit in a large bowl of acidulated water (aka water and lemon juice)
• Just a note thought that the choke bit is edible in baby artichokes

How To Serve And Eat An Artichoke

• You can serve these Steamed Artichokes whole – just remove one leaf at a time, dip the white fleshy part in your dipping sauce, scrape off the fleshy parts with your teeth and then discard the remaining leaf. Continue through the purple leaves till you get to the centre.
• Feel free slice them in to artichoke halves before serving, then pull off the leaves, dip them in the sauce, scrape off the fleshy parts, and discard the remaining portion of the leaves.
• Please make sure that you DO NOT eat the choke (more info including photo below). Do scoop out the choke and discard it, then go ahead and eat the tender inner artichoke leaves and meaty heart.
• Serve these either cold or hot.

FAQs

More Vegetable Recipes

• Jamaican Steamed Cabbage.
• Roasted Zucchini.
• Green Bean Almondine.
• Slow Roasted Tomatoes.

Dipping Sauce Ideas

The nutty flavor are a great vehicle to all sort of sipping sauces like melted butter and million creamy dips like the ones below.

• Chimichurri Sauce.
• Lemon Butter Sauce – use vegan butter or regular.
• Remoulade sauce.
• Bang Bang Sauce.
• Yum Yum Sauce.

Tools You Need

• An awesome Saucepan.
• The best kitchen utensils.
• Measuring cups and spoons.
• A sharp knife for cutting.

Thank you for reading my How To Steam Artichokes recipe post. And please come visit again as I continue to slice, dice and dream up affordable Air Fryer recipes, Instant Pot Recipes, Southern Recipes and more. Thanks for supporting Recipes from a Pantry, food blog.