Roasted Baby Artichokes

We picked up some beautiful baby artichokes at the farmer's market recently.  Before, I've put them in risottos, but I wanted to try and see how they tasted roasted...and, they were delicious!  Just follow the easy directions below to enjoy this feast for yourselves.  You can even eat them cold the next day, like I did, and like I do with the big fellas, too.

Close-up of roasted baby artichokes

Untrimmed fresh baby artichoke

Trimmed and peeled fresh baby artichoke

Roasted baby artichokes

Roasted baby artichokes with purple kale, Basic White Bread, and spicy lentils

Roasted Baby Artichokes

Ingredients:

1 Tbs. lemon juice
3 cups of water
10 - 12 baby artichokes
Non-stick spray
2 or 3 tsp. of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Mix together the lemon juice and water in a medium bowl and set aside.  Wash your artichokes.  With a large knife, trim both ends of the artichoke.  You want any poky tops to be gone, and you want virtually all the stem to be gone.  Pull of the outermost leaves, leaving the tender ones underneath.   Cut each artichoke in half lengthwise and place in the lemon water to prevent early browning.  Once all have been cut, spray a baking sheet with the non-stick spray.  Lay the artichokes on the sheet, cut side up.  Drizzle olive oil on them.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Bake for 15 minutes.  So tender and full of flavor!  The whole thing is edible, so enjoy.  You can just bite into them or have fun eating them leaf by leaf.  I treat them as a finger food.  Feeds five hungry vegans.