Artichoke is a very healthy vegetable. It includes iron, phosphorus, complex sugars, which are also suitable for diabetics, as well as many vitamins of various groups. Especially good for the body if you eat artichoke in winter . Recipes for its preparation can be found in any cookbook.
Stuffed Artichoke. How to cook?
For a romantic dinner, a delicious and original dish “stuffed artichoke” is suitable. Recipes require you to take 200g of prepared minced meat, 6 artichokes, a slice of bread, a small bunch of parsley, 3 cloves of garlic, lemon, olive oil and salt with pepper for cooking. First, squeeze juice from half a lemon, which is poured into a bowl of water. Exotic artichokes are placed in it. This is necessary so that they do not lose their appearance and do not darken.
For the filling, mix minced meat, grated legs from artichokes, chopped parsley, bread soaked in water and squeezed garlic. All this meat mass should be pepper and salt. Only then do they start peeling vegetables. They must be washed, and also removed from the artichokes the upper leaves, which are particularly stiff. Then gently push the middle of the vegetable and put there as many fillings as possible.
All stuffed artichokes are set in a saucepan and poured with water, where oil, salt, garlic and a sprig of parsley are added. Once everything comes to a boil, the fire should be reduced and boiled for another half an hour.
Mussels and artichoke. Spanish Recipes
The Spaniards prefer to cook artichokes for the festive table. Especially magnificent they get a Christmas traditional dish - artichokes with mussels. To do this, you need a kilogram of artichokes (of course, fresh), half a kilogram of mussels, zucchini zucchini, onion, saffron, garlic, half a glass of brandy, as much cream (preferably fatter), 2 eggs, flour, butter (both olive and sunflower will come in handy), as well as salt.
First you need to process the artichokes. They should be thoroughly and accurately (so as not to break) to clean. You need to remove the top leaves from the vegetable until the stems of a pale green color appear. They are cut into pieces and sent to the water with lemon juice so that the artichokes do not darken. Then they are boiled for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, finely chopped onions and zucchini are fried in another bowl in oil. Spices and some water get there. For 20 minutes, the vegetable mixture is stewed, and then pounded with cream until smooth.
Mussels are washed thoroughly and then placed in salty cold water so that the remaining sand leaves them. Meanwhile, boiled artichokes boned in flour and egg are sent to a hot skillet. As soon as they brown, they are put on a paper towel so that the excess oil is gone.
Olive oil (4 tablespoons) and onions with garlic are sent to a hot pan. There are cognac, mussels and fried artichokes. Top all poured squash sauce. For 5 minutes, the dish is stewed, and then served hot and aromatic on the table.
Italian soup
For many, this is a difficult question - how to cook artichokes. Moreover, few people heard about this vegetable before. One of the popular Italian dishes is mashed soup. The ingredients here are simple: lemon, half a glass of cream, 1 egg yolk, 2 tablespoons of flour, the same amount of butter, a little spinach, 3 tablespoons of canned peas, slices of boiled chicken, broth and 4 artichokes.
Artichokes need to be cleaned, freeing them from rough leaves. Be sure to separate and the bottoms of artichokes, which are sprinkled with lemon juice are sent to the pan and laced with butter and broth.
In a separate container, fry the flour and pour the broth very carefully, until a beautiful white sauce is formed. Green peas and artichoke bottoms fall here. All this is boiled for about 20 minutes, until it boils.
The finished mass must be wiped through a sieve and again brought to an active boil. After this mashed potatoes should be diluted with cream, egg yolk and the remaining broth. Before serving soup, pieces of boiled chicken and small leaves of stewed spinach are laid out in plates.
You can cook in different ways artichoke. Recipes to eat fried, boiled, baked dishes. However, almost always these vegetables are served with white sauce.
Enjoy your meal!