The Absolute Best Way To Clean Fresh Artichokes

Cleaning garden staples may seem like an easy task, but there are many common mistakes people make when washing fruits and vegetables. While you can get away with rinsing most vegetables under running water for a quick wash, others, like artichokes, require more extensive preparation. Fortunately, Sarah Raven, a gardener and cook who authored "Sarah Raven's Garden Cookbook" and offers expert plant care advice, has a foolproof method for cleaning fresh artichokes: salt water.

Artichokes are a vegetable that you're probably washing wrong. After all, when it comes to home cooking, they're far from the most common vegetable. A typical mistake amateur cooks make with artichokes, along with incorrect cleaning, is being afraid to try cooking with them in the first place. But, while they may be intimidating, Sarah Raven's tips for washing, preparing, and cooking artichokes will become routine in no time. For the absolute best way to clean fresh artichokes, Raven says to "soak them in very salty water for half an hour."

Sarah Raven told Daily Meal that "if artichokes are garden grown," salt water helps eliminate insects. For example, Raven explains that if an artichoke has "some aphids tucked in, they'll die and float to the top in salty water." In addition to ensuring the water is particularly salty, you should also make sure the artichokes are completely submerged. Consider drizzling your artichokes with lemon and adding lemon juice to the saltwater bath to keep them from browning, similar to how lemon juice prevents oxidation when storing cut avocado.

When cleaning artichokes, start by cutting off the tops and stems and removing the outer leaves and the purple flower if one is present. Afterward, prepare a salty cold water bath and add the artichokes. Submerging the artichokes will help the water reach the deeper layers of leaves that would be difficult to clean with a simple rinse. Once they have been properly soaked, it's time to put those delicious artichokes to use.

Similar to cleaning artichokes, cooking artichokes also involves salty water. Raven suggests putting the cleaned artichokes "into salted boiling water with a saucepan lid that fits within the main cooking pan to keep the artichokes submerged under the water properly." While there are numerous ways to cook artichokes, including grilling and frying, boiling is an easy method with a lot of versatility. When boiled, they can be used to make stuffed artichokes or served on their own with dipping sauces for the leaves.

According to Raven, large artichokes take "30-40 mins to cook, and you'll know they are [done] in two ways: First, they start to fill the room with their typical delicious smell, [and] second, the outer scales pull off if you give them a gentle tug." Once they're fully cooked, let the artichokes cool for a few minutes before serving. While soaking and boiling artichokes takes time, it's also simple and hands-off, with delicious results well worth the wait.