I’m back! The last few weeks I’ve been so busy with moving and unpacking the new house, blogging has been the last thing on my mind, but we are finally settled in (sort of) and I’m ready to blog my little heart out! Speaking of hearts, I’m so excited for today’s post because I absolutely LOVE artichoke hearts! There is nothing quite like the heart of a fresh cooked artichoke. I have yet to find jarred hearts that come close.

Despite how much I love artichokes, I’m so intimidated by cooking them. It seems every year at this time, I see the gorgeous artichokes displayed at the grocery store and tell myself I’ll be adding them to next week’s shopping list. This typically goes on for weeks before I finally decide to give them a shot and then stare at them on my kitchen counter all week.

My wonderful Aunt Judy and Uncle Harold, who I could write a whole blog about because they are the coolest people I know, sent Lou and I a Fagor duo 8 qt. pressure cooker as a house warming gift. I hadn’t really heard much about pressure cookers, other than the whole instapot craze, but oddly enough, I had a pinterest board dedicated to pressure cooker recipes. Just in case – ya know! Anyway, Aunt Judy recommended making artichokes in the pressure cooker and since everything she makes is insanely delicious, I figured I’d give it a shot.

Let me tell you – making artichokes in the pressure cooker is easy breezy and they were so delicious, I made them again a couple nights later. I was super nervous using the pressure cooker the first night and made Lou take Ryder into the other room, just in case I messed up some how and the cooker exploded, but now that I feel more confident cooking with the pressure cooker, it will definitely become a weekly staple. It was really easy to use, clean up was simple and most importantly, the artichokes were perfectly cooked consistent throughout.

 

In addition to cooking artichokes perfectly, the sauce is what really makes the dish. I wanted to create a dipping sauce that was healthy so I could add it to our weekly menu guilt free and simple to prep and clean up, again so I could add it to our weekly menu. A lot of my favorite dipping sauces are mayonnaise or butter based so I wasn’t sure if this would be a total flop, but it turned out delicious! It’s pretty basic, but it hit the spot! It also held in the fridge well so I made a couple extra artichokes and had them again for lunch the next day……and then again for dinner. Like I said, I really like artichokes.

Ingredients

• 2 medium/large artichokes
• 1/3 cup low fat greek yogurt
• 1/4 Cup lemon juice about one lemon
• 1 Tablespoon dijon mustard
• 1/2 Tablespoon prepared garlic
• 1 Teaspoon fresh parsley

Directions

1. Trim and wash artichokes. Be careful of those prickly fellows!
2. Prepare artichokes according to the directions of your pressure cooker. For our model, I cooked on high for 9 minutes.
3. While artichokes are cooking, combine greek yogurt, lemon juice, dijon mustard, garlic and parsley in a food processor or blender (I used my baby bullet) and puree until smooth.
4. Once your artichokes are done, allow the steam to escape and cool for a bit before handling. Cut in half and serve with dip.

Let me know some of your favorite pressure cooker recipes. I’d love to see what else I can use this amazing cooking gadget for.