It’s full on artichoke season here. Growing up, my mom would use Progresso Italian-flavored breadcrumbs to stuff her artichokes. Since I’m still on my low-carbish kick, I wanted to try substituting the magical TVP (textured vegetable protein) instead. It worked! The two corrections I’ll make for next time is to drizzle some butter on top instead of olive oil and to pulse-grind the TVP in the food processor for a few seconds to get the “crumb” size a little smaller. So yay! Stuffed artichokes can be and will be a part of our spring menu.
TVP-STUFFED ARTICHOKES
Makes 4
1 lemon
4 medium-sized artichokes, rinsed and stalk end trimmed
1-3/4 cups TVP
1/4-cup chicken stock or water
3/4-cup grated Parmesan or pecorino cheese
1/2-cup finely chopped parsley, stems are okay to include
7-8 cloves (about ¼-cup) garlic, finely minced
2-teaspoons coarse salt
1/2-teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/2-cup white wine
4-tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or salted butter, melted
Soy sauce, optional
Lemon juice, optional
Mayonnaise, optional
Melted butter, optional
Heat oven to 425 degrees. Line a medium sized oven-safe dish (I used a 9x9x2 bake pan) with two long pieces of aluminum foil; one arranged north south, the other east west. Place a piece of parchment paper on the bottom of the pan. Set aside.
Zest the lemon, put 1/2-teaspoon in a medium size non-reactive bowl. Save the remaining zest for another use. Add the TVP. Sprinkle on the chicken stock and stir to evenly moisten. Add the Parmesan, parsley, garlic, salt and pepper. Stir to combine. Evenly divide the mixture into four parts. Set aside.
In a large non-reactive bowl, juice half a lemon. Add water to half full.
Trim off at least 1/2-inch of the artichoke top and trim the stalk off as close to the base of the artichoke as possible. Remove some of the small split petals towards the bottom of the artichoke. Using scissors, trim off each green petal tip (there are little spikes on each one - ouch!). Roll the artichoke in the lemon water around for a few seconds. Spread the petals out and place back in the lemon water. If there’s enough of a stalk to save, peel the stalk and place in lemon water. The outer layer of the stalk is very fibrous so don’t be frugal here. Repeat with the remaining artichokes.
Place one artichoke on a large dinner plate or pie plate. Using a teaspoon, start filling each petal with the TVP mixture, spreading the petals out and gently pressing the filling in towards the bottom of each petal. Place in the oven pan and repeat with the remaining artichokes.
Drizzle one-tablespoon olive oil or butter over each artichoke. Place artichoke stems on the bottom of the pan. Add wine and fill the pan with enough water to come up one inch.
Fold one layer of aluminum foil over, fold and close. Repeat with the other layer. Bake in over for 45 minutes to one hour, depending on size. Remove from oven and turn oven on to broil. Broil for 5 minutes or until top turns brown, about three to five minutes.
To eat, pull off each petal and bite down. Pull the petal out of your mouth, scraping the petal with your teeth. You want to bite hard enough to scrape the flesh off the petal, not enough to break through the petal. Continue until you get to the center. You’ll see some short fuzziness, called choke. Scrape it out with a spoon or you can pull it out with your fingers if you want. You can eat the heart (and stalk) at this point. I used a little soy sauce, lemon juice, salt and pepper but you can use mayonnaise, mayo/mustard, melted butter, or nothing! Enjoy!
