What Does It Taste Like? How Do You Cook It? What Do You Eat It With?

As everyone has said, steam them until they are tender. They taste really good in garlic butter sauce!

It tastes like an artichoke. I stuff and stream them. I don't eat them with anything, they are a meal on their own.

I tried to steam an artichoke once...let's just say that was the first time I was fearful of a vegetable. No one ever told me those tips that you cut off are actually more like modifed thorns. I am wary of eating foods with "weapons," so to speak.

So, I just stick to artichoke hearts in the jar or can. I cut them up and throw them over salads, or mix with pasta, parm or romano cheese and little buttler, or blend with EVOO and make artichoke pesto.

My ENTIRE family, including my kids who are 5 & 9.... LOVE LOVE LOVE artichokes. Even my picky eating son, LOVES it.
I cook them regularly.

All I do is, cut off a bit of the stem. Wash them, and put them in a large pot with about 1/2 water. And on medium to medium low, I just let them cook, until I can pierce the stem with a fork and it is soft.

Then that's it.
Then my family, eats it the way they want. Which is, either plain or with a salad dressing used as a dip.

Just peel off the leaves and eat the base of the leaf, the tender part that you scrape off with your teeth.
My kids love to then, get to the "heart" of the artichoke. It is grand!
You take off the small inner leaves, remove the "fuzz" on it with a spoon, then eat the artichoke heart.

Super easy.
Super good.
Can be eaten with any sauce you want.

My daughter has friends that have never eaten an artichoke nor even know what one is!
Just try it, it is so yummy.

You wash them real well, let the water get inbetween the leaves. Cut the bottom of the stem off where it's normally kinda dirty.
I put mine in boiling, salted water, enough to cover about half the choke. Simmer about 40 minutes or so until you stick a fork into the stem and it's tender but not too mushy.
Drain. You start pulling off the leaves and dip the wide end in melted butter and scrape the meat off with your bottom teeth, they are SO delicious. Once you get done with the leaves you use a spoon to clean out the bowl (heart) of the choke. Dip the heart in the butter and enjoy your last bit of one of the most delicious veggies out there.
My husband dips his in mayo, that grosses me out since I was raised with butter, but lots of people dip in mayo from what I hear.
There's probably a youtube vid of how to eat one, fyi.

Tastes yummy. Steam it. Dip in melted butter.

I like them but they are a pain to eat. Too much work...

LOL!
Dawn

Steamed and then we eat them with lemon butter.. Not sure how to describe the taste.. But we love them..

We had them tonight. My 6 year old LOVES them - his absolute favorite vegetable. Cut the stem so it sits upright without tipping over, put in pot with about an inch or so of water and cook until the stem end is soft when you poke it with a fork (about 45 minutes for a large one). You peel the leaves from the outside to eat and scrape the meaty portion with your teeth. When you get to the middle there will be a bunch of whitish leaves with sharp tips and some fibrous stuff (the choke). You scrape that out with the back of a fork and then eat the heart (stem end). You probably should look for a picture of that part - it is difficult to explain. I eat them plain but DH and DS dip in melted butter. They are also great cold dipped in a vinaigrette.

I love artichokes. I grew up with steaming the whole plant so to speak. in a preasure cooker. or you can do water boiling for an hour. Then peel the leaves and scrape your teeth on the leaves from the prickle out to the part that is in the middle. I had a sauce, sounds weird, celery seed, mayo and lemon juice mix. most use butter. I am not sure it tastes much like anything, but I do love them. LOL The heart is the best part

We steam them, upside down with the stems cut off, for about an hour to an hour and change. DH likes them with butter. I eat them plain. We serve them with whatever - usually a meat like pot roast or steak or lamb.

Steamed or boiled, I like em with jut a little lemon but for people unconcerned by calories they are great with aioli.

My dad steams them and serves with a lemon butter dipping sauce mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... now I need to call him and ask him how since I am no longer near him.

So funny you wrote this! I grew up eating artichokes - all my friends say they think of me whenever they eat them - I just take them for granted. Now I serve them to my kid and he loves them too.

The simplest way to eat them is to cut the stem off and cut about a 1/2 inch off the tops then snip all the tips of the leaves with scissors. Steam or boil (can add olive oil, salt, lemon and a bay leaf to water, but not necessary) for at least 45 mins and serve whole with dipping sauces. Not sure why but we always have mayo mixed with curry powder or red wine vinegar, melted butter plain or with garlic. Of course low-cal/fat options work well for dipping. You could get creative and try hummus, sour cream, chutney, salad dressing -- whatever. Don't forget the hearts! After you get to the center and leaves are too small to eat, scrape out all the spikey stuff from the heart and then cut and eat.

Another option is making artichoke soup - YUM! (Basic recipe, do a search.)

Bon appetit! :)

boiled with lemon in the water and they are GOOD dipped in a little garlic butter or lemon garlic butter n you pull the leaf out and scrape the flesh out of it

We eat them every year while they are in season. Basically we eat them until we are sick of them and they are out of season so you have to wait another year for one. For us they are the meal but they are nice with steaks or bread and cheese. Part of the fun of eating them is the process of pulling of leaves, eating the lower flesh portion and chatting as you go. A relaxing meal in our house especially with a nice red wine if that's your thing.

They taste like artichokes so I'm not any help there. We boil them and serve with a dipping sauce. We have grilled them a couple of times and that is a very interesting twist. I boiled them for most of the cooking time and then grilled them afterwards. The sauce can be melted butter with herbs (garlic is very nice) or a mayo type cream sauce with seasonings/herbs. You can find all sorts of artichoke recipes on the internet these days. Sometimes I'll boil one or two for each of us and we'll make a variety of sauces. That's a good way to try out new sauces.

In a large stock pot with plenty of water, I drop the artichokes in a full rolling boil. I haven't really found a difference between top up or top down. I put them in top up usually since they are bottom heavy and tend to flip over to face that way anyway. How long to cook depends on size. The bigger the artichoke, the longer it takes. At minimum you are talking at least 45 minutes worth of boiling. If you undercook them, you can reboil them to finish them off, though. I have done that a few times when I misjudged the timing. Also a local grocery carries them for 10/$10. When that sale happens, I steam them in two large batches. They are pretty good cold but you can again boil them/steam them briefly to reheat. Just last year I was having this same chat with a lady at the grocery store over the bin of artichokes. She figured if I was buying ten, she could try two. Good luck.

This wont be helpful to you at all....I have NEVER had artichoke. But after reading the responses it makes me want to try them! Thanks for posting this question! I can't wait to try it, hopefully I like it and maybe my fiance too! Good luck to you!

It's a real green veggie taste kind of like asparagus?? Boil them for about 30min or so until tender. Pull off the outer leaves and scrap the flesh off with your teeth. As you get closer to the center, the leaves have more and more edible flesh on them. The "heart" is the soft spot in the center and the stem is usually very soft and good as well. Do not eat the "hair like" looking stuff above the heart - its' tough. I like mine dipped in Italian dressing. Good Luck!!! I just had one today for lunch!!

Well I personally HATE artichokes, lol, but a lot of people love them :)
I just went to my favorite cooking site, allrecipes.com, typed "artichoke" in the search bar and over 300 recipes came up. Try that!

I love them by themselves, but spinach artichoke dip is probably what every good artichoke dreams of being a part of.

The first time I served one to my husband he said "What the heck is this barb wire pineapple!?!" The first person who decided to eat one was certainly adventuresome or very hungry. Enjoy!

The artichoke is our family's favorite appetizer.

I steam 2-3 artichokes at one time for 1 hour. Yes. 1 hour. Not less.

Heat up olive oil, butter, Parmesan cheese and garlic product of your choice. If I have time I sautee fresh minced garlic with the oils, if no time, then garlic powder or garlic salt.

Then peel the artichoke leaves off and dip and eat. My 10 year old eats a whole one by herself. That's why I make 2-3 chokes.

When you get to the heart, cut in half and scoop out hairy inside. Eat the remainder of the heart.

And don't poke yourself with the spiky tips.

Enjoy!

We've always eaten ours as an appetizer.

Tastes like . . .. eh . . . tastes like artichoke! Go buy a jar of artichoke hearts in the grocery store if you want. I like them on pizzas or on a salad.

From the produce section - fresh - I snip the pointy tips off with scissors, cut the long stem off almost flush, boil the artichokes in salty water with the juice of one lime, tossing the whole lime in there too. Boil for an hour or so. Take it out, let it drain. While warm, you grab a leaf, and the inside part dip in whatever you want (my recipe below) and then scrape it along your teeth to get the good stuff. I turn mine upside down so it scrapes on my bottom teeth. Others scrape it on their top teeth. Discard the leaf, grab another, dip, scrape, repeat.

My favorite dip with artichoke is sour cream, lime or lemon juice, salt, dillweed. Mix well with your fork/spoon.

when in season, maggianos has the best stuffed artichoke appetizer....you have to get there early, they go fast

The flavor is indescribable, but it's not sweet, sour, salty, fruity nor bitter. Artichoke hearts are great in salad. :)