Artichoke Heart Salad with Pecorino and Almonds

This crunchy refreshing artichoke salad recipe is salty nutty and zesty all at the same time making it a satisfying side salad or starter. This artichoke heart salad recipe is no-cook as it uses the raw hearts of small young artichokes.

As a warning - it will not work with large mature artichokes, which need to be cooked. More mature artichokes will have thicker outer leaves and more tightly woven choke fibres.

I used to make raw artichoke salads in the South of France. We would spend whole afternoons working our way through a crate of young artichokes know as ‘les petits violets’ or the little purple ones. We would have tender fingers after hours of preparing the hearts and steeping them in salted lemon water. But this work was rewarded for several days as we would keep the bowl of steeped artichoke hearts so that we could then pull out as much as we needed for that day’s artichoke salad.

These small tasty little thistles are a delicious delight but it is said that artichokes only reward the patient. Many people are intimidated to prepare them. It is a bit of work but easy when you know-how; see below for a step-by-step approach of how to prepare raw artichoke hearts.

Artichoke Salad with Pecorino and Almonds

Ingredients

• 12 small artichokes

• Juice of one lemon for lemon water

• A handful of rocket or aragula

• A handful of almonds, toasted

• 50g of pecorino cheese, shaved

For the dressing

• 3 parts extra virgin olive oil to

• 1 part fresh lemon juice

• Salt and Pepper

Method

In a bowl, squeeze the juice of one lemon into a mixing bowl and top with some cold water and a teaspoon of salt. Once you expose the artichokes to the air they will start to oxidate and go brown - the minute you finish working with each artichoke you need to get them into the bowl of lemon water to prevent this. Additionally, the salt and lemon juice help to break down the fibres.

How to prepare artichokes

• Remove the thick outer layers from the artichokes and then quarter each heart. Take one quarter at a time and return the other 3 quarters to the lemon water while you work.

• Hold the quarter upright and slice diagonally following the curve of the heart to remove the tightly woven fibres of the choke. do so for each quarter.

Remove the outer layers of the artichokes and then the tightly woven fibres of the chokes

The remaining edible part of the artichokes

• Once you are left with only the edible heart of the artichoke then thinly slice each one. Return the slices to the lemon water so that they do not oxidate while you are preparing your other ingredients.

Use a vegetable peeler to shave pecorino

How to roast almonds

• Pre-heat the oven to 180C or 360F. Place the almonds on a baking tray or in a tin with a little salt. Roast for 8-10 minutes, tossing halfway. You can also roast almonds in a dry pan on a stove top but the heat is difficult to control and they risk burning very easily unless you stand over them.

• Shave the pecorino using an everyday vegetable peeler.

• Make the dressing by combining the olive and fresh lemon juice, season to taste with salt and pepper.

• Remove the artichokes slices from the lemon water, pat dry and toss immediately in the dressing with the pecorino shavings, rocket and chopped almonds. Season and serve as soon as possible.