Stuffed Artichokes

These keto meat stuffed artichokes make for a delicious low carb high protein dinner. The meat stuffing has mediterranean flavors of cinnamon and lemon with crunchy pine nuts. Enjoy artichokes in season with this tasty dinner. Just 6.1g net carbs but 18.4 grams of protein per serving.

You might also l like these keto Mediterranean chicken stuffed peppers.

I remember the first time I had an artichoke. It was when I was maybe 10 years old on New Year’s eve while on a family vacation in Colorado. I don’t remember it all that well but I remember thinking they were exotic and I loved them!

It was fun to break off one of the leaves, dip it in butter and scrape off the meat with your teeth. Also it was very tasty as anything dipped in butter usually is. My mom used to make these meat stuffed artichokes and I’m going to show you how today.

She would use a ground beef seasoned with Middle Eastern flavors along with toasted pine nuts. Then she baked them in with lemon slices to add a bit of lemon flavor. You eat them by breaking off the leaves and dipping in butter and the reward in the meat stuffing and artichoke heart. It’s a fun as well as delicious keto meal.

How to eat fresh whole artichokes.

Have you ever tried eating a whole artichoke? It’s lots of fun as I mentioned above but it also takes quite a while to finish so it’s perfect dish for dinner if you are watching what you eat. It makes you eat slow! Lately my hubby and me have been eating plain whole artichokes twice a month and this is one of our favorite keto vegetables.

The important thing to do when cooking artichokes is making sure you can put the leaves off easily. That’s when you know they are fully cooked.

To eat fresh cooked artichokes, break off a leaf, dip into butter and then scrape the fleshy bottom of the leaf with your teeth. Trust me, it’s delicious! Continue doing this will all the leaves.

Once the leaves are gone, you can also eat the stem. But the best part is the middle which is the artichoke heart. The tender heart is sometimes considered a delicacy.

Recipe ingredients and substitutions.

All you need to make this simple recipe is a few large fresh artichokes, fresh lemons, onions, ground beef, pine nuts, salt, black pepper, olive oil and cinnamon.

• whole fresh artichokes – Lately we have been buying our artichokes at Walmart if you can believe that. They have big ones and if you can get them fresh they are perfect. The ones below were not bought there and you can see the discoloring of the leaves showing they are not as fresh but they are still good. The greener the better.
• fresh lemons – You want fresh lemons because it’s nice bake them with the lemons slices as it adds a good bit of flavor. But if you just use bottled lemon juice that is ok.
• ground beef – I’ve made this with regular ground meat (80% fat) and lean (93% fat) and both work fine. However you need to precook the meat when you stuff the artichokes and then they bake in the oven so it can get dry. I would now suggest using the higher fat meat for best flavor but both will work.
• pine nuts and onions – These are key to the meat stuffing. The onions are essential but if you have pine nuts I highly suggest using them as they amp up the flavor a lot. However you could substitute almond slivers (not slices) as they are similar or eliminate them if you don’t have any.
• cinnamon – This seasoning is key to the middle eastern or mediterranean flavor of the stuffing so it’s essential. You don’t need much. If you do not like the flavor you could eliminate it but to me it’s delicious.

NOTE: If you just want to eat whole artichokes and not stuff them you would clean them alike above but don’t cut them in half lengthwise. You willl have to clean out the fuzzy choke as you are eating them. So clean and place the whole artichoke in a large pot or dutch oven and cover them about ¾ of the way with water. Bring to a boil and cover for 10-20 minutes or until the leaves pull off easily and the stem is fork tender.

How to prepare fresh artichokes.

Here are the artichokes I bought pictured below. When my mom made this dish she would keep them whole, dig out the middle and then stuffed it with a mixture of spiced ground beef and pine nuts. I kept the meat stuffing from her recipe but cut them in half to make it easier to clean and stuff. 

1. Clean the stem by picking off scraggly leaves and you can also use a vegetable peeler or a knife and take off the out part of the stem.
2. Using a large sharp knife cut the artichokes in half lengthwise.
3. In the picture below you can see where to cut the tops off with the white dotted line. It should be about ⅓ or ¼ way from the top.
4. Next start pulingl out the leaves in the pink area. There is no set amount of leaves to clean out however you need room to stuff with the meat mxiture.
5. Then using spoon scrape out the fuzzy choke section at the bottom. Below that is the artichoke heart which is the most delicious part and so much better than canned artichoke hearts.
6. Lastly you want to start trimming off the prickly ends of the leaves, especially towards the bottom. I use kitchen shears to cut them. Regular scissors would work too.

How to make meat stuffed artichokes.

Step 1: Preheat oven to 400°F. Using the instructions above clean and prepare artichokes.

Below you can see I cut them in half, chopped off the top part of the artichoke halves and the snipped the spikey tops of the remaining leaves. Lastly I cleaned out the inner leaves so I could make room for the stuffing. And I used a spoon to scrape off the fuzzy center (the choke) to show the artichoke heart.

Step 2: Lay slices of lemon in a microwave and oven safe baking dish. Place the artichokes on top of the lemons. Pour ½ cup of. water in the dish. Cover with plastic wrap or a lid if you have one and microwave for 10 minutes.

Depending on the size of your artichokes it might take longer. You should be able to pull a leave off easily and then you know they are done.

Step 3: While the artichokes are precooking, get out a large skillet and heat to medium heat. Add olive oil and turn then add the chopped onions. Saute for about 5 minutes until they start to turn translucent. Then add the ground beef, salt, black pepper and cinnamon. Mix well.

Step 4: When the meat is just turning brown, add the pine nuts and cook for a 1-2 minutes more. Then take the pan off the heat and let cool for a few minutes.

Don’t worry if the meat isn’t completely cooked through because it will still continue to cook while in the oven.

Step 5: When the artichokes are done, let the cool a few minutes so you can handle them. Take a spoon and baste them with the lemon juice and water from the baking dish. Then spoon the meat mixture into the center of the artichokes and place in the preheated oven.

Step 6: Bake for 10 minutes and they should be done. You know they are done if the stem is fork tender. Let cool for a few minutes before serving. You can add a squeeze of fresh lemon at the end or sprinkle some lemon zest. You can also garnish with parsley if you want.

Please scroll down for the printable recipe card. Store leftovers in an airtight container.

Serve these with a ramekin of melted butter. You just break off the leaves and dip the bottom fleshy part into the butter and scrape that part of the leaf off with your teeth. Trust me it’s delicious!

And if you want to dip them in garlic butter instead, you can add some crushed garlic to the butter before you melt it. Another idea is to use a garlic aioli dip with mayonnaise.

This recipe is a meal in of itself with your meat and veggie combination. But you can add a nice green salad too if you wish.

Note you can eat the bottoms of all the leaves. The center leaves are more delicate and you can sometimes eat the whole thing. The outer leaves and to fibrous at the top to eat. You can eat the meat mixture with the heart in the middle and you can also eat the stem.

I could eat the meat mixture just by itself as it reminds me of my grandmother’s cooking! Add some riced cauliflower and you have this Middle Eastern cauliflower rice pilaf recipe.

I hope you like these meat stuffed artichokes as much as I do. They make a great keto dinner or lunch with a good amount of protein. I have one waiting for me for lunch and I can’t wait to eat it!

The nutrition for 1 stuffed artichoke without the butter is: 297 calories / 21.3g fat / 10.3g carbs / 4.2g fiber / 18.4g protein = 6.1g net carbs

For more information about cooking artichokes check out my friend Julia from Savory Tooth’s post.