Artichokes are low-calorie, low fat, and can be served in many different recipes. You may enjoy artichoke hearts at a Mediterranean restaurant or coating your chips in a friend’s spinach artichoke dip on Super Bowl Sunday. In any case, it’s clear to see why people are attracted to artichokes. One thing that’s a little less clear: are artichokes a vegetable or a fruit? Or are they something else entirely?
Are Artichokes Fruits or Vegetables?
Artichokes are considered vegetables. It’s easy to assume that they’re fruit because artichoke plants produce flowers, which are more often associated with fruits than with vegetables. However, some vegetables can be flowers as well. The key difference is that while fruits that are flowers contain buds that are already pollinated, vegetables that are flowers contain buds that are not yet fully bloomed. Consider how we eat artichokes. The parts of the artichoke that are typically served are the leaves or the heart at the center of the bud, all of which come from an immature thistle. This thistle has the flavor we can taste in delicacies such as the spinach artichoke dip mentioned in the previous example, a flavor that would not exist in a fully bloomed artichoke.
What Category of Vegetable Is an Artichoke?
Artichokes are part of the astercae family, which also includes other vegetables such as lettuce, endives, and salsify. However, the common vegetables that artichokes most physically resemble are cauliflower and broccoli because they’re grown for their buds. (A commonly eaten part of each of those vegetables!) What differentiates artichokes from broccoli and cauliflower is that the latter two are considered cruciferous vegetables, which is the family that most leafy green and other “super food” vegetables such as kale come from. Artichokes and other astercae plants are not cruciferous. However, artichokes do share several of the same nutritional benefits as cruciferous vegetables such as high fiber content and high levels of vitamin C. See below for a full nutritional picture of artichokes.
What Are the Nutritional Benefits of Artichokes?
Artichokes are low in fat and high in fiber while also containing a wide variety of vitamins and minerals. Raw artichokes are especially rich in vitamin C with a single medium artichoke containing 25% of the recommended daily intake (RDI), and artichoke hearts are rich in Vitamin A. Artichokes are generally low-calorie snacks with one medium artichoke containing a total of 64 calories and a cup of artichoke hearts containing 45 calories. See full nutrition facts below.
Nutrition Facts for one Medium Artichoke* (Whole)
| Calories | 64 calories |
| Carbohydrates | 13.5 grams |
| Fiber | 6.9 grams |
| Protein | 4.2 grams |
| Fat | 0.2 grams |
| Sugar | 1 gram |
Other key vitamins and minerals in artichokes include: vitamin C, vitamin K, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, folate, iron, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, calcium, and zinc.
How do I cook artichokes?
Artichokes can be cooked in a variety of ways such as steaming, boiling, grilling, and roasting. Don’t have time to cook? Artichokes can even be steamed in the microwave on high heat for 15-18 minutes. The best way to tell if an artichoke is fully cooked is if you can cut through it with little to no resistance.
As you plan your artichoke recipes, however, keep in mind that unwashed artichokes can be stored in the fridge for up to four days. Canned artichoke hearts, also a popular grocery store item, have a much longer shelf life, but are less fresh than raw artichokes.
If you prefer raw artichokes, here are a few things to pay attention to when selecting the freshest artichokes from the store regardless of how you cook them.
- Make sure you choose artichokes that feel heavy. If they feel light, this means the leaves are dried out and there’s less overall flavor.
- Since an artichoke is a flower, pay attention to how close together the leaves are. The closer together the leaves are, the younger the artichoke, which has a fresher taste than older artichokes.
- Another tell-tale sign of whether an artichoke is fresh is if you hear a “squeaking” sound when you squeeze the leaves together.
If you keep these in mind, you’ll be able to fully take advantage of many different artichoke recipes.
What are some popular artichoke recipes?
Because you can eat both artichoke hearts and leaves, it’s easy to find a wide variety of artichoke-featured recipes. If you’re looking to test your culinary skills beyond spinach and artichoke dip, you’ll find the two go together in a lot of different meals. Some notable examples include spinach artichoke pizza and spinach artichoke grilled cheese, or spinach artichoke lasagna among many others.
Don’t feel like cooking a full meal or doing a lot of prep work? Just quickly steam the artichoke and dip the leaves in olive oil, hummus, or Greek yogurt for a quick, easy-to-make snack. Or you can add some leaves or hearts to your salad. These are just a few of the ways you can eat artichokes.
Conclusion: Artichokes are Vegetables
The verdict is out: artichokes may have more in common with sunflowers (also part of the astercae family!) than with cabbages, but they are definitely vegetables because of the immature state in which they’re cultivated. Not only do these young buds retain the tender flavor associated with artichokes, but they also contain a multitude of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that are in many of the vegetables we eat.
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