Artichokes are a great source of fiber, folic acid, vitamin C, potassium, and magnesium. These are a thistle species and are cultivated in United States. The entire vegetable is not edible. There is less than 20% of the vegetable that is fleshy and edible. The rest of it will be a great for composting.
How to prepare:
Chop off the top 15 % of the stiff part and using a kitchen shears, clip off all the thorny endings. You can now open up the flowery vegetable and widen the petals. Give it a thorough wash with the leaves/petals spread out.
There is a thistle hairy portion sitting in the center. You can easily scoop it off with a spoon. That is the choke. There is a myth that if you eat it you will choke . I've never tried. Make sure you are not scraping too deep or you may remove the heart which is the fleshy portion of the vegetable.
There are four ways to cook this.
1. Steam
2. Roast them in spices
3. Bake them in spices
4. Boil them with some lemon
Ayurvedic spotlight:
Make sure you add spices to it after steaming, boiling them. You can bake or roast them along with the spices. Spices should be carminative in nature because arthichokes can cause bloating and gassy. So, these are not the faint vatas or pittas.
The predominant elements in artichokes are air and ether, hence its important to cook them with ghee and add grounding spices.
Artichokes are bitter and astringent, can also act as diuretic, so they are great for kapha dosha people.
I like to serve these with a cilantro, mint, kale chutney. Kale is optional. All you need is some mint or cilantro. Blend it with lemon juice, salt and a green chilli.
How to serve or eat them?
· Pull apart each petal and scoop off the fleshy part with your teeth.
· Keep doing this till you reach the heart and play rock paper scissors on who wins it 😉
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