I am a great admirer of plants. I love them because they’re beautiful, because they’re interesting, because they’re tenacious and because they’re kind. Plants are good citizens of the biomass. They drink up carbon dioxide and give out oxygen, without which many other organisms – some very familiar – could not survive. They’re the basis of many food chains, and fundamental to almost every ecosystem. They are all around us, doing all sorts of different things.
Plants are basically just really cool.
My favorite plants of all are nonvascular plants, especially mosses. I like the way they push up between bricks, and how soft and strange and ancient they are.
Also old and interesting are ferns and their cousins. They unfurl like violins becoming ostrich feathers, from the center outward in a great fan. They were once the tallest vegetables on the earth.
Plants don’t care very much about our expectations. They grow where they like.
They grow how they like.
Some plants are so tough that they devour their enemies.
These are qualities which I admire, and so I choose to make my home with many plants.
Some of them bear strange blossoms.
Plants are beautiful when they are dying.
Plants are beautiful when they are dead.
Plants are strange and wonderful and utterly fascinating, and what is more, they are delicious.
The very plant-y-est plant for eating that I can think of is the artichoke. Something about how you can see their thistle-ancestry all over, or how you can see all the different parts of it, the leaves and them stem and the heart and the choke, just makes it very clear that this is a real live plant your are consuming.
And they are very, very good. I eat them for dinner with garlic aioli and crusty bread, and forget about protein in my meal. I can get protein some other time.
Plants are where it’s at.
Roasted Baby Artichokes with Lemon-Garlic Aioli
Ingredients:
Equipment:
1) Fill your pot up with water and put it on the stove to boil. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Fill the larger bowl with cold water and squeeze the juice of half the of the lemon into it.
2) Trim each artichoke by cutting the top off about 3/4 of an inch down, and then snapping off the outside leaves until only the lighter green to yellowish, softer leaves are showing. Trim the stem to half an inch or a little longer, and cut the artichoke in half. Then dump the halves into the lemon-water, where the acid will keep them from browning.
5) When the water is boiling, add several tablespoons of salt. Drain the artichokes and drop in them into the pot. Blanch them for 3 minutes, then drain again and return to them to their original bowl.
4) Toss the artichokes with few tablespoons of olive oil, a good pinch of salt and some freshly ground pepper. If you have some, line the roasting pan or baking sheet with aluminum foil, and place the halves cut-side-down onto the tray, put them into the oven and roast for 15 minutes.
5) While the artichokes are roasting, prepare the aioli. Smash your garlic with the edge of your knife, and chop into a fine mince. Put the mayonnaise in the smaller bowl and add the garlic. With your grater or microplane, grate about a half a teaspoon of the peel of your remaining lemon half into the bowl, being careful to get only the yellow zest and not the bitter white pith. Finally, squeeze a teaspoon of lemon juice in and add a tablespoon of olive oil. Beat until well combined and season with salt and pepper.
6) When the artichokes are done, take them out and serve them either drizzled with or dipped into the aioli. The recipe makes too much, so be sure to have crusty bread or another vegetable (asparagus?) around to use up the extra.
Or even some hard-boiled eggs or cut-up grilled chicken, if you really feel the need for some protein.
But I say screw it. Eat some plants, and enjoy.
yay combo food and plant!