Loretta Sebastiani

Loretta Sebastiani
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Easy-to-do artichokes
( Carciofi alla mia maniera )

Our original home cooking

I generally cook artichokes with onions and aromatic herbs, without frying onions in olive oil. I add olive oil only when I turn off the stove. It's a delicious and easy-to-do side dish suitable for people who like healthy eating. Tasty vegan recipe too. The only difficulty lies in cleaning artichokes that requires a bit of time and patience. Remember to clean them with a pair of gloves to ensure not to blacken your hands.

difficulty: easy

time: 60 minutes

calories: 111 (kCal)

Ingredients / Serves 4

  • 12 (1.8 kg - 4 pounds) artichokes
  • 1 bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley
  • 2 little fresh onions
  • 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 lemon
  • 1 dried bay leaf
  • 2 tablespoons dried or fresh chives
  • Salt
Difficulty:
easy recipe
Time:
preparation: 40 minutes
cooking: 20 minutes
total time: 60 minutes
How many calories in a serving?
Calories: 111 (kcal) 6 % - 464 (kJ)
Protein: 4.6 (g) 10 % GDA
Total fat: 7.9 (g) 12 % GDA
Total carbohydrate: 5.8 (g) 3 % GDA
Sugars: 4.9 (g) 6 % GDA

Download free PDF version (155 download).

Easy-to-do artichoke recipe

Preparation and cooking

  • - Prepare artichokes.
    Clean artichokes and cut into segments to have eight pieces from each.
    Immediately plunge these segments into the water where you've squeezed lemon.
  • - Prepare other ingredients.
    Slices onions finely.
    Clean, wash and chop parsley and eventually fresh chives.
  • - Cooking.
    Stew onions and bay leaf in a little water, stirring now and then.
    Add your artichoke segments, with their lemon water, and continue cooking on medium flame, stirring now and then.
    If necessary add 2 other hot water (or vegetable broth if you prefer) and cook until all cooking juice is well reduced.
    Total cooking time is: 15 to 20 minutes.
    Add parsley and chives too, a minute before turning off the stove.

Just before serving

  • - Pour in olive oil just before serving and stir.
  • - Serve artichokes hot or warm according to your own taste.

Note

Tips

  • - You can add a garlic clove, if liked.
  • - You can prepare this dish ahead.
  • - Your dish will be tastier with fresh chives.

Menu planning

  • - Serve this artichoke dish as side dish to accompany boiled, steamed, roasted or grilled fish or meat. But eggs and cheeses too.

Healthy eating

  • - As you can see reading the nutrition facts, this artichoke recipe is a perfect dish to match with meat or fish cooked in a simple and natural way. It's an abundant side dish to combine with small portions of meat or fish in other words, ideal when you want to contain the amount of animal protein.
    Please note its high amount of fiber can easily give a sense of satiety.
  • - Besides artichokes are rich in fibers.
  • - The artichokes have a lot of cynarin too. It is located especially in the pulp of their leaves but also in dried leaves and stems. Cynarin increases bile production, makes easy your digestion, helps your liver function, lowers HDL/LDL ratio. This reduces cholesterol levels which diminishes the risk for arteriosclerosis and coronary heart disease.
  • - This is the method of cooking artichokes I use for my family weekly plan. I never saute onion in olive oil. It's very healthy and it's my way of cooking all food except for some dishes. But I assure you that my dishes are very tasty. You can rediscover the true natural flavors of the ingredients and enjoy the aroma of olive oil added to food without cooking it. It's important to preserve its properties ;))

Loretta

What's the right wine for " Easy-to-do artichokes "?

Please, don't match wine with artichokes. This combination often gives bad results. What about a beer?