Carciofi stufati
Stewed artichokes
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- 4 artichokes (800 g - 1lb and 12 1/4oz) or 6, if little-size
- A lemon
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- Salt
- Time:
preparation: 20 minutes
cooking: 30 minutes
total time: 50 minutes - Difficulty:
easy recipe - Nutrition Facts (amount per serving):
Calories: 75 (kCal) - 313 (kJ)
Protein: 3.7 (g)
Total fat: 5.3 (g)
Total carbohydrate: 3.4 (g)
Sugars: 2.6 (g)
Stewed artichokes is a very quick and easy side dish. You'll be able to taste artichoke natural flavors with this recipe. Ideal for people on a diet or who prefer simple foods. In fact if you look at its nutrition facts it is very low in calories.
In addition, fat and sugar are almost nonexistent.
To make stewed artichokes you need only artichokes, lemon juice, garlic and olive oil.
Here's the recipe of stewed artichokes!
Prepare the artichokes. Clean every artichoke removing its outer leaves and cut its end. Leave every artichoke whole as you can see on the photo.
Immediately plunge the cleaned artichokes into the water where you've squeezed half the lemon.
Please, leave a piece of stem attached as you can see on the photo.
If you want more instructions about artichoke cleaning, please consult our members-only area. There you'll be able to find step-by-step instructions to clean artichokes and a lot of photos on these steps.
The cooking. Look well at the photo for more details.
Prepare a little pan.
Put the artichokes with stem facing up in the pan.
Prepare the cooking liquid: mix the oil with the juice of the remaining lemon and the amount of water needed to cover at least half or more of the artichokes. Pour the liquid into the pan and add the garlic, after peeling it. Add the amount of salt required.
Bring the liquid to a boil, cover with a lid, reduce heat and simmer until tender. Time required: 25-30 minutes. Do not let the cooking liquid reduce too much. Add more boiling water if necessary.
Cooking times depend a lot on your personal taste and the artichoke size.
Your stewed artichokes is ready to serve. If you want, you can sprinkle the dish with very finely chopped parsley just before serving.
Note
- - Obviously this is the basic recipe. This cooking technique is very healthy. Once stewed the artichokes, you can further dress them with olive oil and herbs you like. But it isn't necessary according to us.
- - If you don't like garlic don't worry! Replace the garlic with a fresh onion or fresh herbs (parsley, chives or mint are particularly suitable).
- - Someone prepare the cooking liquid by combining water and oil with white wine. We do not agree because the combination artichokes-wine often gives bad results.
- - This artichoke side dish may accompany meat (with no tomato sauce according to us), fish (baked or boiled or steamed), eggs and cheeses
Healthy eating
- - Stewed artichokes is a complete and interesting dish as you can see reading its nutrition facts. First of all it is a very low calorie dish. Then it isn't rich in fat and sugars and so is ideal for everybody.
But you must be very careful on the amount of fat in cooking. A tablespoon oil is more than enough. Don't increase the amount of oil. There are 90 kcal and 10 g additional fat in every tablespoon oil. We mean a tablespoon as the spoon with which you eat your soup.
- - Please, keep in mind artichokes are rich in water and fiber too.
- - The artichokes have a lot of cynarin too. It is located especially in the pulp of the leaves but also in dried leaves and stems. Cynarin increases the bile production, makes easy the digestion, helps the liver function, lowers HDL/LDL ratio. This reduces cholesterol levels which diminishes the risk for arteriosclerosis and coronary heart disease.
What's the right wine ?
Please, don't match wine with artichokes.
The author Loretta Sebastiani lives in Italy (IT)
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