Invited to see someone’s “cardoons”, I wouldn’t know whether to expect a company of gerbil-like creatures romping around in a cage or necklaces made of rare berries.

But imagine being presented with a dish of leaves and stalks and invited to eat the cardoons!  Cardoons, it turns out, are vegetables, similar to globe artichokes.  Grown from Portugal to Libya and Croatia, cardoons, with their artichoke-like flavor, were popular in ancient Greek, Roman, and Persian cuisine through the Middle Ages. They were also used in colonial America and early modern periods in Europe. 

Once almost entirely a Mediterranean vegetable, cardoons recently returned to the American market.  Although not as common as their cousin the artichoke, you can usually find them at farmers' markets, specialty grocers, and upscale grocery stores when they are in season.

Unlike artichokes, the tender young leaves and undeveloped flower stalks are eaten, not the flower bud.  A winter vegetable, cardoons arrive in stores around December and hang around until early spring. They can keep for weeks in the fridge. Buy them firm and pale. Most of the top leaves will be chopped off already, making them look a lot like celery, although MUCH longer.

Cardoons are perennials up to zone 7 and sometimes zone 6 (if mounded with soil during the winter), so they are grown in Minnesota as annuals. They require at least 8 hours of sunlight, and they prefer well-drained, fertile soil with a pH of 6.5–7.0.  Add compost or well-rotted manure to improve the soil. Cardoons need a lot of space to spread - plant them 2–3 feet apart in rows 3–6 feet apart.  Tall varieties may need staking.

Cardoons are easy to grow from seed so they can be started indoors 6–8 weeks before the last frost, or you can buy container-grown plants.  Cardoons need 100 days to grow from seed to harvest.  Propagate cardoons by seeds, suckers, or root division. Both plants and seeds are available online.

Blanch the stalks before harvest.  Accomplish this by tying up the outer branches a foot or so from the top of the plant and piling soil up around the plant as it grows.  This keeps sunlight from reaching the stalks which then keeps chlorophyll from forming, making the stalks more tender and easier to cook.

Cardoons can be prepared a number of different ways, although – be forewarned - all of them are labor intensive.  The tough ridges of the outer stalks must first be removed and many recipes require hours of soaking.  But cardoons can be eaten raw, dipped in hummus or nut butter, the leaves tossed in salads, the stalks cut in pieces, fried, (after being peeled, soaked, poached and breaded), or added to stews, especially those cooked in crock pots. 

Additional ways to prepare cardoons after initial trimming and blanching include:

• Cardoons Gratin, in which they are baked with olive oil and cheese. Delicious and well worth making if you only plan to eat cardoons once in a great while. 

• Cardoons in a bechamel sauce.

• Cardoon risotto. Silky, rich, and the slight bitterness of the cardoons really balances everything nicely. 

• Blanched with bagna cauda, a garlicky-anchovy sauce. 

• Excellent as a canape.

• In a salad, tossed in a vinaigrette. Simple and good. Use only the innermost stalks, washed well and sliced thin.

• Fried. An excellent if simple dish.  Also, an unusual appetizer, especially coated in chickpea flour and fry with olive oil.

And finally - are you ready for this? - the cardoon’s flowers can be used to make cheese.  The enzymes in its dried flowers, when mixed with milk, curdle, albeit slowly.  Which results in a rennet which is creamier than calf’s rennet.   Portugal, where the cardoon is popular, produces several cheeses using its rennet because of its earthy and tangy flavor.

If you enjoy cooking unusual foods, and don’t mind a long preparation time for something really different and tasty, cardoons are for you.  Enjoy this ancient and unique vegetable!

REFERENCES

“Cardoon, Cynara cardunculus”, https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/cardoon-cynara-cardunculus/

“Cardoon”, https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/plants/edibles/vegetables/cardoon.html

Shaw, Hunter, “Growing and Cooking Cardoons”, https://honest-food.net/contemplating-cardoons/

Smith, Annabelle K., “What the Heck Do I Do with a Cardoon”, Smithsonian Magazine, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/what-heck-do-i-do-cardoon-180950301/

Photo Credits: www.flickr.com (1), Inpraiseofsardines.typepad.com (2)