Cooking Cardoons

Last week I bought some cardoons from Todd Jameson who, with his wife Kathleen, owns Balanced Harvest Farm in Carmel, Indiana. I'd never eaten cardoons and was curious to try them after receiving an email from Todd a few days earlier asking me if I'd ever tasted the unique vegetable.

I brought home a slightly intimidating bundle of nearly 4 feet of plant material which resembled a bunch of giant celery with leaves on the sides of the ribs. On Sunday, after my husband and I prepared the cardoons using a simple recipe for deep frying them, we were hooked and wanted more of the vegetable whose flavor is often referred to as a combination of artichoke, celery, and salsify. We agreed that cardoons are definitely going to be planted in our garden next season.

Cardoons are a very rare find in American markets. So rare, that vegetable cookbook author Elizabeth Schneider calls them "nearly extinct". She refers to them as a "non-mainstream crop" and notes that the small supply which are grown in this country are snapped up as quickly as Italian-Americans can find them. Apparently the Italians have had a longstanding love affair with cardoons and enjoy them in appetizers, salads, gratins, soups, and the popular national dish bagna cauda.

If you can find cardoons this season, don't pass them by. While preparing them takes a little time, you'll be rewarded with a complexity of flavor that words alone cannot describe.

How lucky we are to have someone in Indiana who is growing this "vintage veggie". As Ms. Schneider says of the vegetable that is beloved by notable chefs and local food supporters such as Alice Waters, "...they are worth snapping up if you can find them." I totally agree. After experiencing them for myself, I would encourage you to discover how special this traditional Italian vegetable, grown locally in central Indiana, really is.

Photos: Field of cardoons at Balanced Harvest Farm (courtesy of Balanced Harvest Farm)
            Deep fried cardoons with Parmesan cheese