Who is ready for my 3rd favorite method of cooking artichokes?!! (All your hands better be raised) You already know that boiling is my 1st fave, followed by braising (you can get my braising recipe HERE ) and next comes GRILLED! These grilled artichokes with garlic parsley dip are perfect for these nice spring evenings or for a get together with friends or family!
Grilling artichokes gives it a nice smokey charred flavor to it and these pair really well with steak, chicken, or fish! You are more than welcome to use an indoor grill pan if grilling outside just isn’t your thing. You probably won’t get that smokey flavor, but the char will still be there and it will still taste amazing.
The secret and most important thing about grilling (or even roasting) is “pre-cooking” them first. The grilling happens at the very end and only for a couple minutes. If you do not pre-cook the artichokes, the leaves will dry out and be completely unedible. And artichokes can be expensive, so that would be a majorly sad day if that happened.
When I grill or roast I like to slice the artichokes in half with a serated knife, remove the middle thistle part (the stuff that looks like hair) and stick in a steam basket. Steaming seems to work the best because they won’t retain as much water as boiling would. So fill that steam basket up! I also add sliced lemon into the water under the steam basket just to give it a little bit more flavor flavveeee. That is completely optional of course.
I get a lot of questions on how to eat an artichoke so let’s talk about that for a hot minute. The part of the leaf that you eat is the “meaty” part. It is where the leaf attaches to the heart. It is a bit thicker than the rest of the leaf. You take the meaty part of the artichoke and scrape down with your teeth. I like to go a little bit above the thick part. You won’t be able to scrape much off the outer leaves, but as you get closer to the center you will notice that you can bite off half of the leaf.
If you didn’t cut in half and remove the middle before hand, you will need to remove the “hair” once you get to the heart. (Don’t worry, it’s easy and very noticeable) The heart is the best part and has the most flavor. You can eat the entire thing including the stem. And that’s it!
Ingredients
- 3-4 artichokes, halved
- 2 slices of lemon
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
- 1 cup ghee or butter
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- Slice your artichokes in half and scoop out the "hairy" part.
- Place lemon slices in water then add artichokes to steam basket and cover.
- Let artichokes steam for 30-35 minutes.
- Once time is up, move over to a grill and place open side down for 2 minutes over direct heat. Flip and grill for another 2 minutes.
- Remove and set aside
- In a small pot melt ghee or butter. Add in the minced garlic, fresh parsley, and pinch of salt. Let simmer until garlic is very fragrant. About 2 minutes.
- Drizzle over artichokes or place in a small bowl to dip the leaves.
- OPTIONAL: squeeze lemon over artichokes once they are done.
What is you favorite way of cooking artichokes?
Whole30: yes
Paleo: yes
