Buying This Food
Look for: Compact vegetables, heavy for their size. The leaves should be tightly closed, but
the color changes with the season—bright green in the spring, olive green or bronze in the
winter if they have been exposed to frost.
Avoid: Artichokes with yellowed leaves, which indicate the artichoke is aging (the chloro-
phyll in its leaves has faded so the yellow carotenes underneath show through).
Storing This Food
Do refrigerate fresh globe artichokes in plastic bags.
Do refrigerate cooked globe artichokes in a covered container if you plan to hold them
longer than a day or two.
Preparing This Food
Cut off the stem. Trim the tough outer leaves. Then plunge the artichoke, upside down, into
a bowl of cold water to flush out debris. To remove the core, put the artichoke upside down
on a cutting board and cut out the center. Slicing into the base of the artichoke rips cell walls
and releases polyphenoloxidase, an enzyme that converts phenols in the vegetable to brown
compounds that darken the “heart” of the globe. To slow the reaction, paint the cut surface
with a solution of lemon juice or vinegar and water.
What Happens When You Cook This Food
Chlorophyll, the green plant pigment, is sensitive to acids. When you heat a globe artichoke,
the chlorophyll in its green leaves reacts with acids in the artichoke or in the cooking water,
forming brown pheophytin. The pheophytin, plus yellow carotenes in the leaves, can turn a
cooked artichoke’s leaves bronze. To prevent this reaction, cook the artichoke very quickly so
there is no time for the chlorophyll to react with the acid, or cook it in lots of water to dilute
the acids, or cook it with the lid off the pot so that the volatile acids can float off into the air.
How Other Kinds of Processing Affect This Food
Canning. Globe artichoke hearts packed in brine are higher in sodium than fresh arti-
chokes. Artichoke hearts packed in oil are much higher in fat.
Freezing. Frozen artichoke hearts are comparable in nutritional value to fresh ones.
Medical Uses and/or Benefits
Anti-inflammatory action. In 2006, a report in the Journal of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan
suggested that cynarin might be beneficial in lowering blood levels of cholesterol and that
Artichoke, Globe