Spring has sprung and I’m in the mood for one of my favorites… ARTICHOKES! I used to be super intimidated by these beautiful veggies, but after falling in love with the baked stuffed artichokes at an Italian restaurant we’d go to for date nights… I was obsessed with making them my own at home (without the gluten and dairy). We searched high and low for how to make a stuffed artichoke, but after all the artichoke recipes, finally landed on this method. To make them paleo, you can use almond meal or Tigernut flour, both are delish and very similar… and since we don’t need dairy because of all the delish spices, these are vegan too. By far, this is our tried and true favorite and they are WORTH THE WAIT, believe me.
Part of the intimidation on these beauties, is their tough exterior and probably their cook time also. If you’re going the whole stuffed route, baking for a long time is most flavorful and the easiest in my opinion. Just cut the stem, tops, and use kitchen shears to snip the rest of the layers (off with those pointy parts), you’re GOLDEN. Let the oven and olive oil do the rest.
You can really bring your own creativity to the stuffing for these Paleo stuffed artichokes and use this as a jumping off point, but the Italian seasonings with olive oil, lemon zest, and flour is such a great mix.
One of the most important tips for baked stuffed artichokes? To make sure they’re sealed with tin foil so they don’t leak in the oven! I like to double up on tin foil and tightly wrap them. You will LOVE this method and I hope you’ll share it if you try! Enjoy these delish, totally adaptable artichokes.
A delicious set it and forget it stuffed artichoke recipe that will have you addicted! Using almond meal or tigernut flour makes this paleo, Whole30, or AIP. You can switch up the seasonings however you like and really make it your own, but this method is a sure fire way to amp up the flavor, texture, and skip the fuss when enjoying whole artichokes.(Paleo, AIP, gluten-free, vegan, Whole30)
2Tbspdried Italian seasoningoregano, etc. (or make your own seasoning blend)
Sea salt to taste
1lemonzest
Option: 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast or parmesan cheese if toleratingfor AIP, omit or just use nutritional yeast
Instructions:
Pre-heat oven to 400f degrees
Chop stem as close to the bulb of your artichoke as you can and then chop the top (about an inch or so in) off the artichoke so you can see the very top of the middle as you can see in my photos.
Next, grab some kitchen shears and just snip the pointy ends of the rest of the external layers that didn’t get cut. You can see what that looks like above.
Set your artichokes aside and combine all filling ingredients together so it’s formed a bit of a paste.
Place artichokes on 2 long pieces of tin foil (enough to completely cover the artichoke and ensure nothing leaks), I arrange the tin foil in a cross or “x” shape to be safe, having the artichoke in the center, standing upright.
Separate the layers with your clean hands and really get in there, the more you can open it up, the easier it will be to stuff it to the bottom – do your best, sometimes they’re really tight – so drizzling a little more olive oil can help loosen it up.
Now, stuff! Use half your mixture on each of your 2 artichokes with your hands and try to make sure it’s evenly distributed within the layers (include the center ones as best you can). You want to get as low as possible so it doesn’t come out.
Wrap and totally cover your artichokes when done so there are no open parts of the foil.
Place the tin foil packages on the bottom rack of your oven and bake for approx. 1.5 hours. You can give them a squeeze with your oven mitt to check them and ensure they feel nice and soft, for super large, tight artichokes, it could require 2 hrs.
Serve with some lemon juice and sea salt or just eat it as is! To eat, simply start peeling the layers off one-by-one and scraping off the “breading” and bottom flesh with your teeth. As you work your way into the center of the veggie, you’ll notice much softer layers that you may be comfortable eating all of vs. the externals which stay pretty hard on top usually. Chew it all well for best digestion!
Notes:
for AIP – I’ve only tried Tigernut flour as it most closely resembles almond meal in both texture and flavor. I wouldn’t recommend coconut flour as I would envision it to be chalky since there’s no egg to bind it, I have no other substitutes at this time.
join the conversation
no comments