Steamed Artichokes are a fun, healthy, and surprisingly easy dish to prepare! This simple recipe pairs tender, sweet artichokes with a creamy, tangy lemon yogurt dipping sauce — perfect as an appetizer, side dish, or even a nutritious snack that kids and adults both love!
Table of Contents
Why I Love This Recipe
- Healthy and Nutritious: Artichokes are super healthy—packed with antioxidants and a surprising amount of plant-based protein, which makes them a great addition to any meal.
- Kid-Approved Fun: My oldest first fell in love with steamed artichokes years ago while helping me prep them. Getting kids involved in the kitchen is a great way to encourage adventurous eating!
- Versatile Side Dish: These steamed artichokes go with everything — Simple Broiled Salmon, Perfect Roast Chicken or even Southern Style Pork Tenderloin. Plus, the lemon yogurt sauce doubles as a tasty dip for other veggies.
- A Sunday Night Favorite: I make artichokes almost every Sunday night. They’re especially delicious this time of year, and their sweet, tender leaves taste even better when dipped into this lemon yogurt sauce. It’s a simple recipe that feels a little extra special.
The Ingredients
- Artichokes: Fresh, whole artichokes work best. Choose ones that feel heavy and have tightly packed leaves.
- Greek yogurt: Creamy and tangy, it forms the base of the dipping sauce.
- Lemon juice: Freshly squeezed lemon juice adds brightness and a zesty kick.
- Dijon Mustard: Adds a little zip to the sauce.
- Kosher Salt: Just a pinch enhances all the flavors.
How to Steam an Artichoke
Step 1: Place 2 inches of water in a steamer pot and bring to a boil.
Step 2: Cut top 1/4 and bottom stem off of large artichokes with a serrated knife. If leaves have prickly or barbed ends, trim them off with scissors. If you are using baby artichokes, remove some of the tough outer leaves, until you hit the pale green leaves (about 10-20 leaves). Trim off top and bottom stem of baby artichokes.
Step 3: Place artichokes in the steamer pot stem end down, cover and cook over medium-high heat for 30 minutes or until the leaves peel off the artichoke easily and the base of the artichoke is tender when pierced with a knife.
Step 4: In a separate bowl, combine the remaining ingredients and whisk to make the dipping sauce.
Step 5: Serve the artichokes with the yogurt dip.
Recipe Video
Tips and Tricks
- Pick the Best Artichokes: Look for ones that feel heavy and have bright green, tightly closed leaves.
- Test for doneness: Artichokes are ready when a knife easily pierces the base and the leaves pull off without resistance.
- Get the Kids Involved: One of the best ways to encourage kids to try new foods is to involve them in the cooking process. My kids learned to love artichokes because they helped me prep them and loved peeling the outer leaves. Giving kids a role in the kitchen makes them more excited to eat the finished dish!
FAQs
Pull off the leaves, dip them in the sauce, and scrape the tender part with your teeth. Once you reach the center, remove the fuzzy choke to reveal the tender artichoke heart—it’s the best part!
This lemon yogurt sauce is amazing, but you could also try melted butter with lemon, a garlic aioli, or a simple vinaigrette.
More Vegetable Side Dishes You’ll Love
Once you learn how to steam artichokes, you’ll be enjoying them all the time! It’s super easy, delicious and they’re actually fun to eat! Let me know what you think of this recipe by leaving a comment and rating below!
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Artichokes with Lemon Yogurt Sauce
Ingredients
- 4 large artichokes
- 1/2 cup yogurt (I like to use Greek Yogurt)
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Place 2 inches of water in a steamer pot and bring to a boil.
- Cut top 1/4 and bottom stem off of large artichokes with a serrated knife. If leaves have prickly or barbed ends, trim them off with scissors. If you are using baby artichokes, remove some of the tough outer leaves, until you hit the pale green leaves (about 10-20 leaves). Trim off top and bottom stem of baby artichokes.
- Place artichokes in the steamer pot stem end down, cover and cook over medium-high heat for 30 minutes (if cooking baby artichokes cook half the amount of time) or until the leaves peel off the artichoke easily and the base of the artichoke is tender when pierced with a knife.
- In a separate bowl, combine the remaining ingredients and whisk.
- Serve the artichokes with the yogurt dip.
Notes
- How to Eat an Artichoke: When eating the large artichokes, you want to pull off the leaves and eat the “meat” off of the bottom half of each leaf, discarding the leaves. Once you’ve eaten all of the leaves, you will have the artichoke heart remaining. With a knife or spoon, scrape out and discard the inedible fuzzy part (called the “choke”) covering the artichoke heart. The remaining bottom of the artichoke is the heart. Cut into pieces and dip into sauce to eat.
- How to Pick the Best Artichokes: Look for ones that feel heavy and have bright green, tightly closed leaves.
- Get the Kids Involved: One of the best ways to encourage kids to try new foods is to involve them in the cooking process. My kids learned to love artichokes because they helped me prep them and loved peeling the outer leaves. Giving kids a role in the kitchen makes them more excited to eat the finished dish!
- Test for doneness: Artichokes are ready when a knife easily pierces the base and the leaves pull off without resistance.
- Sauce Storage: The sauce can be kept in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-5 days. Use it to dip other veggies or even fish in!
Just curious, recipe says stem end up but picture shows stem end down. I’m confused.
You’re right! Stem side down is what I prefer – sorry for the mixup. Truth be told, either way would work though! Thanks for commenting 🙂
I don’t commonly comment but I gotta tell thankyou for the post on this one : D.
I haven’t made artichokes in a long time because I thought they were a pain to make. This recipe for steaming them and also the yogurt dipping sauce are so easy, I will definitely be making them on a regular basis. So yummy, thank you!
I was wondering if you use plain yogurt or flavored? This looks so delicious and my daughter and I love artichokes but I never even thought of using anything but mayonnaise as a dip
The sauce will keep refrigerated for 3-5 days!
Hi! I just wanted to know, how long can the sauce be kept?