Fried Baby Artichokes with Creamy Garlic Mint Aioli- A new addition to the Spring garden
These fried baby artichoke hearts are perfect for Spring. Every spring, Diane and I go through the annual “What veggies are we going to plant?” ritual. First the weather starts to warm and we begin to crave more than leafy greens, sugar snap peas, radishes, and carrots. We’ll hit our local nurseries and garden sections of the home improvement stores and nearly buy a bunch of boring varieties which we don’t really want but that is all they have because is it too early in the season. We’ll barely hold off on purchasing, then two days later the weather will drop winter cold again and we congratulate ourselves on not buying too early. Repeat two more times.
This recipe has been a seasonal favorite since 2011 when we first shared it.
Video: Fried Artichoke Hearts with Creamy Garlic Mint Dip
Fried Artichokes with Garlic Dip
These crispy little bites of fried baby artichokes are always a treat. There’s a little work involved when it comes to prepping the baby chokes. But once you get past the prep, the rest of the recipe is super simple. Each crunchy bite dipped into the creamy garlic dip is so amazing, we just always wish there was more. But it’s definitely worth the effort for a wonderful appetizer to share.
Growing Artichokes
One veggie we always want to grow, but we never buy, is artichokes. They just take up soooo much room and we’re not giving up arugula space and it is unthinkable to reduce any of the tomatoes or chilies growing room. But this year we’ve added a couple more raised planters, and we finally planted artichokies.
The main reason we want to grow the artichokes is for the baby artichokes. So cute and tender we could just eat them up. Wait… we do eat them up. Strip them, then slice, fry, salt, and devour them. It sure is tasty.
Here’s a recipe for fried artichoke hearts. It’s one of our favorite ways to cook up the baby artichokes, Fried Baby Artichokes. Tasty little tidbits we tend to eat much more than we intend to. One note on making them, be very liberal in stripping away the outer leaves. As a general rule, the darker the color the leaf, then tougher it will be after frying. Usually we’ll strip almost half of the leaves off of store bought baby artichokes.
If you like the crunchy outer leaves feel free to strip a little less. You can always strip more leaves off after frying if you change your mind. You can also make this with the “adult” artichokes, but you might want to scoop out the choke (the little hairs over the heart.)
We’d love to hear what everyone else is planning for or excited to grow this year. What’s your favorite varieties or what are you trying to make room for. Enjoy these fried artichoke hearts!
Fried Minted Artichoke Recipe with Garlic Mint Dip
Ingredients
For the Fried Artichokes
- 6 baby artichokes
- 5 cloves garlic
- 20 mint leaves (about), finely sliced
- 1/2 lemon , cut into wedges
- flakey salt , to taste
- oil for frying
For the Creamy Garlic Mint Dip
- 1-2 cloves garlic
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) chopped fresh mint leaves
- 2 teaspoons (10 ml) fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 cup (112 g) mayo
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) salt . or to personal taste
- fresh cracked black pepper , to personal taste
Instructions
Make the Creamy Garlic Mint Aioli
- In a mortar & pestle, smash the 1-2 cloves garlic (the garlic will come through a lot – 1 clove will be garlicky, 2 cloves very garlicky). Then add the 1/4 cup chopped mint and 2 teaspoons of lemon juice and grind until well pulverized.You can also just add everything into a personal blender and blend together until the garlic and mint are well pulverized.
- Grind and stir in the 1/2 cup of mayo and then season to taste with salt and pepper.
Prep the Artichokes
- Strip away the outer leaves until they are a very light green (usually about 1/3 -1/2 of the outer leaves).
- Peel the stems to remove tough outer skin.
- Slice the pointy tops off each artichoke leaf. We like to cut the tips off the lower leaves and then slice the top off the rest of the head.
- Cut the artichokes in half lengthwise down the stem.
Fry the Artichokes
- Pour enough oil in a large skillet to fill 1/2" deep. Heat over med-high heat. When oil is hot (about 350°F), place artichokes cut side down in a single layer (fry in batches if necessary). Scatter garlic cloves between the artichokes and add half of the mint.
- Fry until garlic and artichokes until lightly golden (about 2-3 minutes) then flip and fry until just done (about another 2 minutes).
- Watch the garlic and pull garlic cloves out just before they are fully golden. They'll continue to cook a bit more after being removed from oil and will become bitter if overcooked.
- For serving, squeeze a little lemon juice over artichokes, season with salt (we love to use a nice flakey salt for these) and toss with remaining mint leaves. Serve warm or at room temperature with the creamy garlic mint dip and lemon wedges.
Video
Nutrition Information per Serving
Simple Everyday Recipes
- Stovetop artichoke spinach dip
- Grilled artichoke stems
- sticky honey garlic chicken tenders
- sesame beef and celery stir fry
- celery chicken curry soup
- sizzling cheeseburgers in more cheese sauce
- Here’s more great artichoke recipe ideas!
- this recipe was originally published in 2011 and updated with new videos and photographs.
Beautiful images!
Artichokes are my favorite thing ever. I stuffed peppers with artichokes last week and it was amazing. These look unreal. I’ve never cut down my own hearts like this – but you make it look pretty simple!
What a great post and beautiful pictures. I can eat artichokes every day. I must try your version.
My dad grew artichokes in my childhood garden one year. I still remember how much better they are than anything you can buy at a store!
I can’t wait for our first big heirloom Gold Medal variety tomato. They weigh 1-2 lbs each and we eat them raw all summer with a little flaky sea salt and a sprinkle of pepper. This year I’m growing shiso leaves for the first time and can’t wait to munch on those too!
OMG. I think I just had an orgasm from that photo!
I just Peruvian Blueberries. Technically, they’re a guava plant, but I’m obsessed with the nursery that is at the Leukadia farmers market.
I’ve yet to taste artichoke. Your beautiful photography has me drooling and can’t wait to get my hands on this yummyness 🙂
We planted an artichoke plant last year but the wind kept stripping the leaves off. It came back this spring, so we’ll see what happens! They are one of my favorites that we don’t eat nearly often enough so I’m crossing my fingers. This recipe looks amazing!
Some of the asparagus didn’t completely come back this year, which is a bummer because this was the first year it would be strong enough and big enough to harvest. Rhubarb is gigantic already and arugula is going strong. I missed the window to plant peas from seeds. Our strawberries are gone 🙁 because it got so hot too early last summer that it fried them. Not warm enough for tomatoes and things like that yet. It was 32 this morning today!
We had planned to just do a small garden this year since we’d be moving this summer, but now we aren’t moving so we will see! I planted too much last summer and combined with the unusually long, hot summer I was not very motivated to take care of it so I will probably cut back this year.
I always dedicate half my space to greens. Sturdy kale, rainbow chard, and collards rule supreme in the PNW climate. That crispy crunchy minted artichoke looks delectable!
We love our greens too! Winter and spring we have all we could desire, but come summer we are envy supreme of your PNW gardens!
Mmm. Artichokes. I swear, they’re probably one of my favourite foods of all time.
I’m not much of an artichoke fan which tells you I’ve never had really good ones, doesn’t it? Anything with mint is okay in my book though!
These look…amazing! Both the size (baby, so cute!), the flavors, the photos, just…stunning!
I admit that I love fresh foods, almost never buy anything frozen, but I will say that TJ’s frozen artichoke hearts save my life. No salt, no oil, just the chokes. But your post inspires me to use fresh again, despite the work 🙂
Uh *swoon*, not only do I love gardening adventures- I am planning my first ever garden this year; but your photos are so beautiful. Food is so beautiful, sometimes I am at a loss for words!
You should just grow your own vegetable seedlings! It isn’t that difficult and it would open up a world of possibilities. Ever paged through a seed catalogue?…you would have hundreds, if not thousands, of tasty options to choose from.
We do grow seedlings too. We have one whole side section of the garden for propagating. Some things we just prefer to get them already started for us. We only have so much raised space, and anything ground level gets puppy pawed! But seed catalogs are fantastic!
One advantage of local nursery shopping is that good nurseries will get varieties which will usually do well with the local climate, while with seeds catalogs you usually don’t have that specialized info.
My boyfriend LOVES ‘chokes- he will die for this recipe. Thanks for sharing!
I always look for baby ‘chokes in California, but it’s usually the wrong season. We never see them in Denver, and I love them so much. I just saute them with butter and eat them straight from the pan.
Brilliant! So simple and can’t believe we’ve never thought of that. Duh! Usually we’ll make a garlic butter to dip into, but sauteing them up in butter is perfect! Thanks Kitt!