Spring is the season of artichokes. This outwardly intimidating vegetable is in season from March to June and sometimes they are found in fall.
Although it might look a bit unusual, when cooked, artichokes make for a delicious dinner.
Artichokes usually take close to 45 minutes to steam inside a normal pressure cooker which is a long time for any kind of vegetable.
So, like always, Instant Pot comes to the rescue, to save us time and to make it convenient. With its pressure cooking feature, you will have a delicious artichoke on your plate in no time.
Artichokes are edible flower buds, and similar to broccoli and cauliflower are filled with nutrients. It’s a very healthy vegetable, and according to the scientific data, it contains the highest amount of dietary fibers and antioxidants. Foods like broccoli, blueberries are less antioxidant when compared to an artichoke. Similarly, other foods like avocados or oats when consumed provide less dietary fibers. Thus this vegetable can become an essential part of your diet if you are out to lose a few pounds.
As previously discussed, artichokes are steamed not boiled. You can steam it with a proper streamer but it will take a long time to cook. So, we use pressure cookers.
How Long To Pressure Cook Artichokes?
For people who have a normal pressure cooker inside their cabinets can follow these steps to cook a perfectly tender delicious artichoke within 45 minutes:
- Pick a fresh artichoke from the market. The artichoke’s health is indicated by how compact its petals are and how green it is. So, closely nit petals and a healthy green color mean it’s a good artichoke.
- Cut the bottom part to give it a flat surface. We want to place the artichoke on top of a stand.
- If you have a medium-sized artichoke, pluck a few small petals from the outside that you think will not have a bit of flesh on them.
- Now, trim the brushy tip that is on top of every single artichoke petal. Cutting them is necessary because they are not edible.
- Place your artichokes inside the pressure cooker. Add water and make sure it remains below the fill line. But you don’t want to add too little in case the water dries off. Depending upon your cooker fill it up to 3 to 4 inches.
- Close the lid and place it on medium-high heat.
- When your cooker is sufficiently pressurized and a steady stream of steam is coming out, place the weight on top of the hole and wait for it to start jiggling. It will take about 10 minutes to reach the jiggling stage.
- Turn the heat down from medium-high to medium-low and start noting the time. Make sure to turn the heat off after 30 minutes.
- After cutting the heat, don’t touch your pressure cooker in any way. Allow the built-up pressure to release naturally. It will cool down in about 10 to 15 minutes.
- Take the weight off, open the lid, and enjoy perfectly cooked meaty artichokes.
For cooking inside an Instant Pots follow the same procedure but set the time to 10 minutes instead of 30.