Click here for printable PDF recipe cards Grilled Artichoke with Garlic Butter Dipping Sauce

If you’ve never had fresh grilled artichoke, you MUST try it!  It’s not like the soft, lifeless, colorless stuff you get in a can or jar (which, don’t get me wrong, works great when you’re making a spinach artichoke dip).  This beautiful specimen tastes sooooo good!  Even my husband will eat it (and we all know by now that the man eats very few things that are green).

You can choose to go healthy and stick with just the grilled artichoke, or you can listen to the little devil on your shoulder and dip it in the garlic butter sauce.  Either way, there’s no judgement here (FYI, I listen to the little devil when it comes to this 😉 ).

Ingredients: 1 large artichoke, olive oil, salt, garlic powder, & lemon pepper, butter, garlic, lemon juice.

First, cut off the very tips of all the leaves.  There are these very unpleasant little thorns on the ends.

Remove any leaves off the stem.  Cut off ~ 1/8-inch off the bottom of the stem and carefully cut away just the very outer fibrous layer of the stem.

Place in a covered dish and microwave for 4 minutes.  I microwave before cutting it in half only because these little suckers are tough!  And I’m a bit accident-prone with sharp or hot objects, which is why I wait 🙂

Allow to cool for approximately 5 minutes (you don’t want to burn yourself!).  Then cut the artichoke in half.

Next, cut out the choke.  The choke is the “hairy” part on the inside.  Trust me you don’t want to eat this.  It would be like trying to eat hair.

You will see just this layer right under the choke that is a slightly different color from the heart.  If you cut just under it, it will make it a little less “messy” and more of the “hair” will stay on that layer versus falling everywhere else.

Quite a few of the inner purple leaves will come out too and that’s perfect.

Brush both sides with olive oil.

Sprinkle both sides with salt, garlic powder, and lemon pepper (I’m pretty generous with the lemon pepper).

Grill both sides for 2-4 minutes, depending on the temperature of your grill.

Doesn’t that look delicious?!?!  Now let’s get wicked…Butter Garlic Dipping Sauce. Grab these 3 things…

Put the butter and garlic in a small, microwave-safe dish. Microwave 20 seconds, stir, and repeat until butter is completely melted.  Add lemon juice and voilà!

 Click here for printable PDF recipe cards Grilled Artichoke with Garlic Butter Dipping Sauce

Just in case you’ve never eaten a fresh artichoke and don’t know how (I’m not kidding here! Not everyone has seen it or tried it.), here’s a You Tube video that shows you how 🙂 Skip over the part where she tells you to cut out the choke because you did that before you grilled it!

Watch on YouTube: How to Eat an Artichoke

Grilled Artichoke

Ingredients:

1 Large artichoke

Olive oil

Salt

Lemon Pepper

Garlic powder

Directions:

1. Cut off tips of artichoke leaves to remove thorns. Cut off 1/8-inch off bottom of stem and very outer fibrous layer of stem.

2. Microwave in covered dish for 4 minutes.

3. Cool ~5 min. Cut half and cut out choke.

4. Brush with olive oil then season with salt, lemon pepper, and garlic powder.

5. Grill on med-high for 2-4 minutes on each side.

Garlic Butter Dipping Sauce

Ingredients:

4 TBSP        Butter

2 TBSP        Minced Garlic

1 tsp             Lemon juice

Directions:

1. In a small dish microwave butter and garlic for 20 seconds, stir, and repeat butter is completely melted.

2. Stir in lemon juice.