Artichokes are one of my family’s favorite foods. In fact, once they’re cooked if you don’t come eat some you probably wont get any. My 2 youngest girls can quickly eat one on their own each and they’re only 5 and 8 years old.
If you’ve never eaten, cooked, or cut an artichoke they can be a little intimidating to know what to do first. Watch my tutorial video below for a visual aid.
How to Cut an Artichoke
Basically you cut the tip of the artichoke off with a serrated knife, then you cut off the stem. Next trim the top of each leave that’s exposed. You do this because artichokes have a little barb or pokey at the tip of each leaf. By trimming the leaves it prevents you from getting poked as you peel the leaves off to eat them.
How to Cook an Artichoke
When cooking an artichoke we typically prefer to steam them. If we’re only steaming 1 or 2 we love using our Tupperware Smart Steamer (pictured below)
If we’re making 3-4 artichokes we will usually steam them in our steam pan insert on the stove. You can also boil the artichokes which is what I grew up doing, but I think you loose a lot of flavor and nutrients that way.
You will know the artichoke is cooked when the small bottom leaves can be easily pulled off the artichoke.
How to Eat an Artichoke
To eat the artichoke just pull the leaves off starting at the base. Dip the tip of the leaf (the part that was attached to the artichoke) into some mayo or butter and bite the end then pull the leaf and let your teeth slide the “meat” part of the leaf off.
As you get closer to the center of the artichoke the leaves will get more thin. Once you reach leaves with purple on them it’s time to cut to the heart. Using a butter knife cut along the top of the edge where the last leaves are attached. You want to cut in a bowl like shape towards the center of the artichoke in order to cut all the hairs out. If you miss any then just scrape them off.
Cut the rest of the stem off up to the base of the artichoke and now you have the heart. Cut the heart into the size you want for eating. The heart is a concentrated version of what you have been eating off the leaves.
And one of my favorite parts from the movie The Pink Panther-
