Grilled Artichokes

You know that smell right when the rain starts after there hasn't been rain in a while? That really good smell of mother earths sigh of contentment? I love that smell. It makes me want to close my eyes and take a pause to breath in the sent of the coming rain.

That smell always reminds me of artichokes. My mom used to make us artichokes while I was growing up. I love them. I prefer them fresh instead of marinated. I also like them whole and I like to scrape the meat off the leaves. Delicious.

After growing up I have made them a few times and I have gone to a couple restaurants where they were served as an appetizer. I always get them at the Cheesecake Factory with my friend Ernest, and at the Cattle Co. in HI with my good friend Gwen. Both restaurants grill their artichokes. Very good.

Since I have been on a healthy BBQ kick I thought maybe I could grill my artichokes that I got at my  favorite grocery store, Sprouts. I got them for $2 each, which I think is a tiny bit high but they were huge! I cut them in half and they were the weight of over one serving. So I went for it!

I have been tracking all my calories on My Fitness Pal for over a month now and I started to notice that I was not getting enough potassium and iron. So I asked my friends on my app and Ali wrote back and gave me a huge list of foods that were not bananas and red meat. Which was what I wanted. I don't really like bananas and even though I absolutely LOVE red meat it is just so high in calories. Artichokes were on her list so I decided to make some. One serving or a little under 1/2 of one of these that I am making has about 950 mg of potassium and 18% of my daily requirement of iron. I was stoked! 

Before cooking them you got to trim them. I use my cutco scissors. My mom used her cutco scissors when I was growing up too. Anyways, I use them to trim the ends of the artichoke leaves. They have little stickers at the end of each leaf. So you want to cut them off. There have been times when I would prick my arm while at the store or while unpacking them at home and it is not pleasant. I can't imagine pricking my tounge with one. Ouch!

Then cut off the end of the stem. I normally enjoy eating the stem but some don't like it. After cutting off most of the pricks, the tip of the artichoke is harder to trim with the scissors so I cut it off with a knife.

While trimming the artichokes have a big stock pot on the stove full of water on to boil. After the trimming is finished then put the artichokes in the boiling water. With these artichokes I didn't have enough water in the pot so it was a little hard on the stems so make sure that they are covered in water while boiling.

Because I am planning on grilling these I didn't cook it all the way. About 15 minutes in the water. I took them out and cut them in half.

Then cleaned out the middle called the choke. The choke is not eddible. Do not try. It will be a horrible experience in your mouth. If I was just going to eat this after boiling or steaming then I would eat the leaves then scrape out the choke. Since I am BBQing them I took them out before heading out to the grill.

I decided to make the same dressing that I use for my roasted cauliflower reciped. I use olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Then add the artichoked to get coated in the dressing.

Head out to the BBQ and put it on the grill. First put it with the cut side up and grill for about 8 minutes. Then flip and cook for another 4 minutes.

Take off the grill and enjoy.

The way you eat them is by taking a leaf off the globe and scraping the meat off the inside.

Most of the leaf will be left to be discarded. Normally my mom would have a big bowl in the middle of the table and the whole family would throw the scraped leaves in there.

Oh man, do I love these! They are fun to eat and because you have to take each leave off it makes you slow dow a little in eating them. I tend to eat too fast and overeat so anything to help me slow down.