The artichoke has a beautiful, subtle flavour, ideal to serve as an artichoke salad, an accompaniment to light meals or as a starter. There is a lot of mystery surrounding how to cook artichoke, but they are very easy once you know how.

I have included 2 different methods of preparing this artichoke recipe.

First Method:

• Remove the outer leaves of the artichokes, cut the hard stalk off – leaving approximately 1 inch (2cm) of stalk.
• Clean the fluff off of them, and if they are too big, cut in half.
• Rub them well with lemon and throw them into a bowl of water with a bit of lemon and salt (so they won’t change their colour).
• Put a good amount of water in a saucepan with salt and bring it to the boil.
• Add the artichokes with the juice of 1 lemon and the skin of 1/2 a lemon.
• Cover and leave them to boil until soft. Drain.
• You can serve these cold or at room temperature with a dressing of olive oil and lemon or mayonnaise.

Second Method:

• Remove the outer leaves of the artichokes and stalk leaving 1 inch (2cm).
• Clean the fluffy hair off and remove the rest of the leaves.
• Then with a teaspoon you dig a little hole in the centre of them.
• Rub them with lemon and boil them in plenty of water with salt, lemon juice and 2 tablespoons margarine.
• When soft and ready, drain them.
• In the meanwhile, boil a few peas and finely diced carrots.
• Fill the artichokes with peas and carrots (to give colour), then squeeze an olive dressing with a bit of melted butter all over the artichokes.
• Serve with roast or bbq meat.