ARTICHOKES WITH HERBS

My boyfriend bought me the most amazing French Cookbook for my birthday this year, after I dropped him all kinds of hints about how much I had fallen in love with the beautiful photos in the book (and not paid too much attention to the ingredients used). Upon receiving the cookbook, I was very disheartened to discover that I would probably never cook any of the recipes, as the amount of cream, oil and butter the talented cook uses would astound anyone. You may not know this about me, but as a general rule, I never use cream in cooking and will only use the occasional dollop of butter for baking. (If you do not believe me, feel free to check through the past 6 months of recipes). However, the cookbook has been a source of constant inspiration for me to pair certain vegetables, herbs and spices together. One such recipe I created is below. To increase the size of the dish, you can purchase 2-3 tins of artichokes and increase the ingredients as necessary. You can cook the artichokes from scratch, of course, however it is rather time consuming and more than a little fiddly!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 x 400g tin of whole artichokes, drained well
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon dried mixed herbs
• 1 small brown onion (60g), finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, finely diced 
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary 
• Optional- a drizzle of fresh lemon juice, to serve 

COOKING 

1. Place olive oil, onion, garlic, herbs and whole artichokes in a small saucepan or frying pan over medium heat. Stir gently, careful not to break the artichokes. Cook until the onion is soft, around 4 minutes. 

2. Place the onion mixture on the bottom of a serving plate and top with the artichokes. Drizzle with fresh lemon juice, if desired. 

Serves / 2- 4 as a side 

x E