Artichoke with Dipping Sauce

300+ Recipe Digital Cookbook

"I spent 10 years creating and testing 1000's of recipes for this cookbook, it's my proudest creation!"

- Mariel, Author & Founder

Kids often get asked “what’s your favorite color?” or “what’s your favorite food?” Well, as a child when I was asked what my favorite food was, I responded with an innocent voice: “artichokes”. No joke. It was hands down my favorite thing to eat; in my mind it was ten times better than pizza, hamburgers, ice-cream…it beat them all! I was a great eater. Any mother wished they had me as their own child when it came to eating well. I would like all meals and lick the plate clean (literally). I would eat anything. I remember my mom sitting down with us after school every day and having lunch with us. Three courses usually: soup/appetizer, entrée and dessert (not always, only if we were lucky…my mom didn’t like to consume very many sugars, and since she was the queen of the house, it depended on weather or not she felt like indulging a bit).

My eyes would open wide and brighten up when my maid or mom would inform us we were having artichokes as the appetizer. So good! It was so good because eating it was a total experience. From removing each leaf and dipping it in the sauce, to getting rid of the small “thorns” that led to the artichoke’s heart (my favorite part of the artichoke)…it was all amazing. You’ll get a better grasp at how this process works; it’s explained later in this post, below the recipe’s steps.

Plus, artichokes are so pretty! They look like flowers with big, bold green flower leaves. Love them!

Today, I’ve decided to take you all back to my childhood days and share my favorite appetizer. This recipe came straight from Ecuador, just for you!

Artichoke with Dipping Sauce

Recipe Type: Appetizer

Cuisine: American

Author: Mariel Lewis

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 45 mins

Total time: 55 mins

Serves: 2 servings

A beautiful, healthy dish for anytime entertaining.

Ingredients

2 artichokes
3 hardboiled eggs, peeled and finely chopped
2 tbsp finely chopped green onion
2 tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp olive oil
3 tbsp purified water
Sea salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions

Cut the stems off the artichokes, leaving a flat bottom for them to stand on.
With a sharp knife, cut the tops off the artichokes and discard.
The tips of the leaves have little spikes, trim those with kitchen shears.
Place artichokes in a large pot and fill the pot with water to cover the artichokes by an inch or two. Place over high heat to bring to a boil. Once water boils, reduce to a simmer and allow to cook for 45 minutes.
While artichokes cook, prepare your dipping sauce. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the chopped hard boiled eggs, green onion, white vinegar, mustard, olive oil, sea salt, and black pepper until well incorporated. Mix in the purified water to make the sauce a bit more runny, and place sauce in refrigerator.
Once artichokes are done cooking, drain the water and let them cool off a bit.
Enjoy by peeling artichoke leaves and dipping them in your freshly made sauce.

Serving size: 1 serving — Calories: 214 Fat: 10 g. Carbohydrates: 19 g. Protein: 14 g.

Notes

Tools You’ll Need:[br]- Large pot[br]- Tongs[br]- Cutting board[br]- Sharp knife[br]- Kitchen shears[br]- Mixing bowl[br]- Measuring spoons[br]- Fork[br][br][i]Just in case you’ve never eaten artichokes this way before, this is how to do it:[br]- Remove one leaf and dip the bottom of the leaf (which contains a bit of the artichoke “meat”) in the dipping sauce. Scrape artichoke meat from the leaf with your teeth and swallow. Discard rest of the leaf.[br]- Repeat step above until you’ve eaten all leaves.[br]- Once you no longer have leaves, you are left with the artichoke heart and the artichoke spines (which are found on top of the heart, see pictures). Carefully remove ALL spines and discard them.[br]- Now that you only have your artichoke heart left, cut it in small squares and place them all in your dipping sauce. Combine thoroughly and eat! SO GOOD![/i]