How to Eat Artichoke

You've made some delicious artichokes, such as these steamed artichokes and now you might be wondering how to eat artichoke, especially when it looks like such a crazy looking vegetable.

The good news is that not only are steamed artichokes super easy to eat, but they are also super tasty.

How to Eat Artichoke

Cooked artichoke on a white plate with a small bowl of mayonnaise dip.

After you cook your artichoke, you'll want to place it on a plate and let it cool a bit. While it is cooling, get your dipping sauce ready.

Your dipping sauce could be a bit of melted butter with lemon juice added, plain melted butter, mayonnaise, melted butter with fresh, minced garlic clove added or many of the other delicious sauces.

When you are ready to eat your cooked artichoke, add it to a plate and have the butt of the artichoke facing you, as this is where you start pulling the artichoke petals off.

Normally, we put a large bowl or other container on the center of our table to throw the discarded leaves into.

Pull the first few leaves off and put them into the container you are using for the discarded leaves.

Now, with the next artichoke petal you pull off, dip the wider end into your dip of choice.

Closeup of an artichoke leaf with mayonnaise on the base of it.

Then, put the dipped end into your mouth and use your teeth to scrape off the meat.

Closeup of artichoke leaf with meat scraped off.

Add the artichoke petal to the discard pile and keep eating the artichoke that way. As you get further into the artichoke, you'll notice the petals get thinner. You can pull multiple petals off at once and eat the meat off them.

You'll also get to a point where you have a few fine petals - they form a triangle on the top. You can pull those off.