What’s In Season |by Louise Goldberg RD CSP LD CNSC
Your local farmer’s market is alive with colors and flavors! Challenge your kids to find something they’ve never tried before and bring it home to taste.
Artichokes: One medium artichoke has about 60 calories, zero fat and is loaded with vitamins, fiber and phytonutrients (which have anti-cancer properties).
How to Prep:
Trim the stem. You can cut it off if you want your choke to stand up on a plate later but save those stems because they are tasty. Take a large knife and cut the top 1/3 of the artichoke leaves. Fan out the leaves a little bit so you can get some water in to wash them. Use scissors to trim any little thorn on top of each leaf, if necessary.
How to Cook:
No matter how you cook them, artichokes are done when you are able to easily pull a leaf out. Steaming: Turn upside down in steaming rack over boiling water. You can put some aromatics like thyme or white wine into the water or in the steaming rack. Steam for at least 3040 minutes. Roasting: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut them into quarters or even sixths so they get done. When you get to the thorny inner part, go ahead and take out as shown below. Oil or spray a large oven safe dish. Toss the artichokes lightly with oil and any seasonings 51