I seen baby purple artichokes before but this is my first time coming across full grown purple artichokes so I picked two up.

I treated them the same way I’d treat a green artichoke because they were large. I do know the baby purples can be eaten raw. I do note that after cooking the artichokes turn green.

So I started by soaking them in a gallon plastic bag upside down so all the dirt would fall out.  I peeled the steam and sliced the very end off and trimmed them.

I cooked them on the stove top with……..

Carrot, 1/2 Onion, Lemon, 3 Garlic Cloves, 2 tiny Bay leaves, 1/2 a Banana Pepper and instead of salt a heaping Tablespoon of Vegetable Base. I covered the vegetables with water and brought to a boil and reduced to simmer for about an hour.

When the artichokes were cool enough to handle I decided I wanted to prepare my two artichokes two ways. I scraped out the leaves to make Reduced Fat Artichoke Dip and I used the Button and Stem to Fry in Panko and Parmesan Cheese in Butter.

It sounds like a lot of work but it only took me about 15 minutes to scape the two artichoke’s leaves.

The leaves near the choke have almost nothing to scape off so I just remove those leaves and scrape out the choke.

I cut the buttons in half and used the stems.

I used 1/4 cup parmesan shredded

1/2 cup panko

1 egg beaten

pinch granulated garlic

fresh crushed sea salt and black pepper

and just fried them in

4 Tablespoons of non-salted butter

Sprinkled some parmesan cheese and scallions on the top.

In a medium bowl combine the panko, shredded cheese, garlic salt and pepper. In a small bowl is your beaten egg. Dip the artichoke pieces in the egg and coat with crump and repeat. Then fry in butter on medium heat. Optional – Top them with either scallions or parsley and some more parmesan cheese.

These came out FORKING GREAT! The button is the best part of the artichoke so you should do something rich and indulgent with it.

Out of the artichoke scrapping I made Reduced Fat Artichoke Dip that’s made with a secret ingredient. NOBODY would ever guess that this is reduced fat. This sure doesn’t taste like reduced fat at all.

I’ll post this recipe tomorrow.