Karl’s Stuffed Artichoke Caps With Greek Flavors

I am making Greek lamb for my 65^th birthday. I decided on stuffed artichoke caps as the vegetable, but I could not find any recipes that I liked. I did find ingredients that I could eliminate. I am not one who usually covers vegetables in cheese and—with the kids their keto/Atkins diet—bread crumbs are eliminated.

Karl’s Stuffed Artichoke Caps With Greek Flavors

Stuffing vegetables is a very Mediterranean dish that lends itself to near infinite possibilities. In this dish I am choosing to use spinach, shrimp, and pine nuts. For the Greek herbs, I am thinking marjoram and oregano would go nicely with the other ingredients.

I sometimes find it hard to name my culinary creations. Sometimes I am trying to recreate a dish that has a specific range of ingredients set by the “home” cuisine. Other times I will take the items in range of ingredients of that country and combine them in was a local probably never would. I could not call this dish “Greek stuffed artichokes,” but it certainly fits in there somewhere.

Karl’s Stuffed Artichoke Caps With Greek Flavors

Ingredients

8-10 artichoke caps, frozen
2 cloves garlic, mashed to a paste
2+ Tbs. olive oil

Stuffing

1 cup spinach, blanched and chopped
10 large shrimp, coarsely chopped
2 Tbs. pine nuts, toasted
1 Tbs. lemon juice
½ tsp. oregano
½ tsp. marjoram
½ tsp. black pepper, cracked
¼ tsp. Kosher salt

Lemon wedges

Directions

1. Defrost the artichoke caps and, if necessary, slice off a bit of the stem so that the cap sits upright.

Tip: You may dice the artichoke bits finely ad add them to the filling.

2.Mash the garlic and mix it with the olive oil.

3. Brush the garlic oil all over the artichoke caps.

4. Set the caps on a Pam-ed lipped baking sheet.

5. Mix the rest of the ingredients in a medium bowl until thoroughly blended.

6. Distribute the filling between the artichoke caps.

Tip: There will probably be enough filling to form a large-ish mound up out of each cup.

7. Place the baking tray in a preheated 425º F oven for 10-15 minutes, until the filling is cooked through.

8. Transfer the artichoke caps to a serving platter and serve with the lemon wedges on the side.