Grilled Artichokes with Lemon Garlic Sauce

A-ma-zing….. the only word for these.

I’ve never before prepared an artichoke, but suddenly had a desire to have them grilled. I did a little research to find out how to actually prepare an artichoke and this was the result:

They were soft and slightly smoky and tangy from the sauce.

I first trimmed them to get them ready for their lemon-garlic bath – cut off about 1 1/2 inches from the top, cut off the stem to give them a flat bottom, then cut in half. Once halved, I scoop-scoop-scooped the choke out from the inside – make sure you get out all of the little hairy pieces. When I was done, I thought there would be nothing left to eat, but that was so wrong…..

Artichokes will immediately start to turn brown, so I placed them cut-side down in a bowl of water with the juice of 1/2 a lemon.

Once they were all done, I steamed them for about 15 minutes on the stove to get them mostly cooked – the grill was the final touch for flavor.

I made a sauce with 4 cloves of chopped garlic, the juice of 1 lemon, about 1 tablespoon of grapeseed oil, and about 4 tablespoons of vegetable broth. I didn’t want to use much oil, but wanted the sauce to cling to the artichokes, so used a little oil and made up the rest of the liquid with the broth.

Preheat the grill to medium, and brush the cut side of the artichokes with a good layer of the sauce – some of the liquid and garlic pieces can go into the hollow of the artichoke.  Place them leaf-side down on the grill first, and leave them for about 5 minutes.  Then baste the cut side once more with the remaining sauce, and turn over on the grill. Grill the cut sides for 3-5 minutes.

These are absolute perfection!