Serves 4

Prep time: 15 mins

cooking time: 50 mins

Roasted artichokes are fun to eat and packed with flavour. Pull off the salty, crispy leaves to dip into an easy garlic, lemon mayo, then indulge in the artichoke heart! The UK artichoke season runs from around June to September, although smaller crops are sometimes grown in the autumn. 

Ingredients

4 Large globe artichokes

2 Lemons, halved

8 Tbsp Olive oil

8 Garlic cloves

2 Tbsp Butter

1 Tsp Herbes de Provence (or dried basil, thyme, oregano, tarragon)

114g Mayonnaise

Sea salt & black pepper


Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 220°C/200℃ fan. To trim the artichokes, cut off the stem and top inch of the artichoke leaves. Peel off small leaves on or near the end of the stem. Use kitchen scissors to snip off the pointy tops of the outer leaves.

  2. Cut the artichokes in half. Use a spoon to scrape out the hairy ‘choke’, including the purple topped pointy leaves inside. Squeeze juice from 1 lemon over the artichoke insides to prevent browning.

  3. Drizzle bottom of large baking dish (or 2 medium dishes) with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and place the artichoke halves cut-side up in the dish. Drizzle with 4 tablespoons of olive oil. Add 1 large or 2 small garlic cloves into each artichoke cavity. Chop butter into 8 pieces and put one in each cavity. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of herbes de Provence over the 8 halves and season with sea salt and ground black pepper.

  4. Carefully flip each artichoke half, tucking the garlic and butter inside. Drizzle outside of the artichokes with remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
    Cover pan tightly with foil.

  5. Roast for 30 mins and then remove the foil and roast for an additional 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool slightly.

  6. Flip artichoke halves over using tongs and remove the garlic cloves. Chop the garlic cloves on a small chopping board.

  7. Put the mayonnaise in a small bowl and stir in the chopped garlic cloves. Stir in 4 teaspoons of lemon juice and then season with salt and pepper.

  8. To eat the artichokes, peel off the outside leaves and dip the very bottom of each leaf into the garlic mayo. Use your teeth to scrape off the bottom flesh of the leaf. As you make your way to the inside of the artichoke, leaves become more and more tender and you’ll be able to eat the bottom part of the leaves. When you have peeled off all the leaves, you’re left with the heart of the artichoke (the best part!). Just cut into pieces and dip into the garlic mayo… delicious!