Lemon & Garlic Roasted Artichokes

Lemon & Garlic Roasted Artichokes

SO EASY!  Found whole artichokes at the Santa Monica Farmer's Market recently and decided to bring some home and try a few recipes.  This recipe was the easiest, most delicious and healthy too!  It was also my first time roasting artichokes and success on the first try is always a testament to the simplicity of the recipe.

Ingredients: 

Artichokes

Lemon

Garlic

Salt and Pepper

Instructions:
*You'll have to treat each artichoke one at a time.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  Cut off the stem of the artichoke so you have a flat base.  Then cut off the top 1/3 of the artichoke to expose the center.  Place the artichoke standing upright in a shallow bowl and squeeze a little lemon juice all over the artichoke to prevent it from browning.  Carefully pry open the leaves a little bit, like opening up a rose's petals.  Squeeze some more lemon juice so that it gets in between the leaves then insert a couple fresh garlic cloves into the center of the artichoke.  Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle a pinch of salt and pepper.  Wrap the whole artichoke up in heavy duty foil, making sure there are no cracks or tears.  Once its tightly sealed, place the foiled artichokes in a oven safe baking dish and roast in the oven for about 45 minutes for smaller size artichockes and 1 hour 10 minutes for larger ones.  When they're done, BE CAREFUL when handling them out of the oven!  Let them cool enought to handle, they will be piping hot.  Open up your precious foil pouches of yumminess, plate, and enjoy by pulling off one leaf at a time, eating the flesh at the base, and of course the heart.  DON'T FORGET THE GARLIC CLOVE, its the best part!  The garlic glove will be nice and sweet and carmelized. Probably not the best date dish, since your breath will be nice a garlicy for the rest of the day, but if both of you like garlic...it might be the perfect date dish. ;-)