How do I prepare artichokes, asparagus and awkward vegetables?
The specific trick for each of the vegetables people avoid because they look like work.
- Difficulty
- intermediate
- Time
- 25 min
- Read
- 2 min
Short answer
Asparagus snaps where it stops being woody — bend it and let it choose. Artichokes need the outer leaves pulled off and the choke scooped. Leeks need splitting and rinsing because grit lives inside them.
A handful of vegetables get skipped because nobody has ever shown anyone how to deal with them. Each has one specific trick, and none of them takes long once you know it.
Step by step
- Asparagus: let it snap where it wants to.Hold each end and bend. It breaks exactly where the woody part ends. Faster and more accurate than judging by eye. Keep the ends for stock.
- Leeks: split and rinse thoroughly.Grit gets right down between the layers. Cut lengthways most of the way, fan the layers under running water. Rinsing a whole leek does nothing.
- Globe artichokes: strip, trim, scoop.Snap off the tough outer leaves until you reach pale tender ones, cut the top third off, trim the stem, then scoop out the hairy choke with a spoon. Lemon on cut surfaces stops browning.
- Jerusalem artichokes: scrub, do not peel.The knobbly shape makes peeling wasteful. Scrub well and roast whole or halved — the skin is fine.
- Fennel: quarter and cut out the core.Trim the fronds — keep them, they are a herb — halve it, and cut out the solid triangular core from each piece.
- Celeriac: cut, do not peel.Stand it on a flat base and cut the skin away in strips with a knife. A peeler cannot cope with the root end.
- Pomegranate: score and tap.Halve it, hold cut-side down over a bowl and hit the back firmly with a wooden spoon. The seeds fall out. Doing it in water keeps the juice off your kitchen.
- Squash and pumpkin: flat base first.Always. See the dedicated guide — this is the one where people injure themselves.
Tips
- Keep the trimmings. Asparagus ends, leek tops, fennel stalks and herb stems all go into stock rather than the bin.
- Prepared artichokes and celeriac brown quickly. A bowl of water with lemon juice holds them until you are ready.
- Most of these can be prepared several hours ahead and kept in the fridge, which makes them much less daunting on the day.
Questions people ask
Where do I snap asparagus?
Nowhere in particular — bend the spear and it breaks exactly where the woody part ends. It varies spear to spear, which is why bending beats measuring.
Do I need to peel Jerusalem artichokes?
No. Scrub them well and roast with the skin on — peeling something that knobbly wastes most of it.