the.com/cardoon
the artichoke's spiky ancestor, a thistle so good Italians forgive its murderous looks
means A tall, edible thistle whose blanched leaf stalks are cooked and eaten, closely related to the artichoke and prized in Mediterranean cuisine.
from From French 'cardon', drawn from Provençal 'cardo', which traces back to Latin 'carduus' meaning 'thistle' — the same prickly root that gives us 'chard'. The cardoon and the artichoke are botanical kin, both cultivated forms of the wild thistle Cynara, so the name fittingly grew straight from the Latin word for the spiky plant it still resembles.
- family
- Same species as the globe artichoke
- eaten part
- Stalks, not the flower buds
- flavor
- Tastes like artichoke crossed with celery
- rennet trick
- Its flowers curdle milk for vegetarian cheese
- invasive
- Runs wild across Argentine and Australian plains
cardoon of northern spain — traditional vegetable crop cultivated extensively in navarre and aragon regions, harvested for blanched edible stems
cardoon of murcia — protected geographical indication crop in southeastern spain, eu protected designation of origin since 1995