I’m going to tell you about these lemon-roasted artichokes (holy hell these artichokes), but first I need to let you know…I rebranded the blog!
The TL;DR is this—I wanted to write more about my day-to-day life being vegan in this crazy weird town…so welcome to The Waco Vegan! Poke around on my new About page for more deets.
And as always, I truly appreciate you being here. Without you, I’m just a rando talking to myself about my lunch.
And on the other? It means all the vegetables, like fresh peas, artichokes, and spring onions.
But this year, instead of passing them up for vegetables that don’t fight you so hard, I decided to give Jeanine Donofrio’s roasted artichokes recipe a try. Her Love and Lemons Cookbook is out and it’s the perfect way to cook your way through a farmers’ market. It’s arranged by fruits and vegetables rather than by season, so you can buy something random at the market, like a bunch of artichokes, then head to the “A” section of the book and find something to cook.
No more fennel bulbs and good intentions wilting away in your crisper drawer!
This recipe has totally converted me to artichokes. Not only do I think the prep it takes to cut these artichokes down is worth it, but I also finally get what is so precious about them. Turns out it does take an arm and a leg to prep an artichoke, but that’s a good reason to make more than 1 and go for a batch of 8 or 12.
Before you do anything, fill a bowl of water with the juice of the lemons, then slice up the lemons and toss them into the bowl.
Then, take one artichoke and chop of the inch at the top and a bit of the stem. Peel off 3–4 layers of the tough outer leaves till you see pale green, tender leaves (I had to peel off more than I thought!).Then use a paring knife to shave off the tough outer base (around where the heart is).
Finally, slice the artichoke in half vertically and use a spoon to scoop out the prickly choke from each side.
Toss the artichokes in the lemon water immediately to keep them from browning.
Once these are all roasted, you can keep them in the fridge all week and toss them into pastas and salads, like this vegan alfredo I made last week, or this quick Mediterranean pasta.
Note: I only changed a few tiny things the second time I made these—reducing the oil to 2 Tablespoons (since I've been trying to use less oil in my cooking), and making 12 artichokes instead of 8. I found the recipe to be really flexible! My artichokes were especially tiny, so I think that's why it worked well with 12 artichokes.
Follow directions above (or in Jeanine’s book!) to prep the artichokes. Juice both the lemons into a bowl of water, then slice them up into segments and add those to the bowl to. As you prepare the artichokes, add them to the bowl of water immediately.
Place the artichokes, cut side down, in a glass or ceramic baking dish, and arrange the lemon segments around them. Pour the extra oil over the top.
To serve, remove any tough outer leaves (they’ll be curled up from the roasting) and chop. I like slicing the stems into small pieces, then quartering the remaining artichoke vertically so that every bite has some of the heart.
Toss into salad or pasta, or arrange on toast or in a sandwich.
This sounds delicious. I love artichokes but feel the same about all the work for so little flesh. Thanks for the details on how to prep, really helpful.