Cleaning garden staples may seem like an easy task, but there are many common mistakes people make when washing fruits and vegetables . While you can get away with rinsing most vegetables under running water for a quick wash, others, like artichokes, require more extensive preparation. Fortunately, Sarah Raven, a gardener and cook who authored " Sarah Raven's Garden Cookbook " and offers expert plant care advice , has a foolproof method for cleaning fresh artichokes: salt water.
Artichokes are a vegetable that you're probably washing wrong . After all, when it comes to home cooking, they're far from the most common vegetable. A typical mistake amateur cooks make with artichokes, along with incorrect cleaning, is being afraid to try cooking with them in the first place.
But, while they may be intimidating, Sarah Raven's tips for washing, preparing, and cooking artichokes will become routine in no time. For the absolute best way to clean fresh artichokes, Raven says to "soak them in very salty water for half an hour." How to clean fresh artichokes in salt water Sarah Raven told Daily Meal that "if artichokes are garden grown," salt water helps eliminate insects.
For example, Raven explains that if an artichoke has "some aphids tucked in, they'll die and float to the top in salty water." In addition to ensuring the water is particularly salty, you should also make sure the artichokes are completely submerged. Consider drizzling your artichokes with lemon and adding lemon juice t.