Fresh Veggies | Roasted Artichokes

I love restaurant-style spinach and artichoke dip. Really, though, who doesn't? Aside from the wonderful appetizer served by so many restaurant chains, and occasionally using artichoke hearts in a recipe, my experience with these prickly vegetables has been minimal.

When I saw them on sale at the store though - well, I am an opportunist shopper, after all. Good side dish, I thought.

So, I roasted them. Knowing nothing about artichokes (other than the canned variety), I let Google educate me a little before I started, of course! I came across this assortment of fresh artichoke recipes. As always, I made it my own, but I have to give it to Ms. Stephanie Lyness - delish! Thanks for introducing me to a new side of artichokes :)

Oh, as a note: the original recipe called for 8 baby artichokes, but I had full-sized ones and they came out fantastic, so my version below uses those.

Roasted Artichokes
Yield | 4 servings

Prep Time | 5 minutes
Cook Time | 50 minutes
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Ingredients:

2 artichokes

5 tablespoons olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoon oregano

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/8 teaspoon sugar
1/2 onion, sliced

1/2 cup water

Salt and pepper, to taste

Cut the artichokes in half, length-wise.

Remove the choke and sprinkle with salt and pepper. For those of you who don't know what the choke is - I didn't - it's the fuzzy part in the center, toward the stem. Just take a paring knife and slice along the base of the fuzzy part. Then, take a spoon and dig it out, like a grapefruit slice. Piece of cake... once you figure out the choke. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat in a large pan.

Combine the remaining 3 tablespoons of olive oil with 1 clove of minced garlic, the oregano, the crushed red pepper, sugar, and red wine vinegar. Whisk until mixed through. Brush over artichokes.

A picture is worth 1000 words. This one might be worth 1000 tastes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place artichokes face-down in pan with olive oil and cook with onions and remaining garlic until artichokes have browned, about 8 minutes. Rotate periodically. Add water to pan.

Cover and bake, face-down, for 20 minutes. Uncover and roast for 10 additional minutes.

So simple. So delicious. Definitely better than all the calories in the dip.

Although, I will say, next time, I want to top them with crumbled bacon and balsamic vinegar. Ooooo... ideas...