Meatless Meals: Fried Artichoke Hearts with Succotash and Cheese Grits

A most dolorous Lent to you all! If you're looking for what not to serve for Lent, head on over to Amy Welborn's Gallery of Regrettable Lenten Foods. I'm afraid the recipe below, on the other hand, is 100% free of Ched-O-Bit or Fish Supreme.

There are multiple components to assemble here, but if you have a good mise-en-place, it all comes together quickly. Well before dinner time, I had the liquid for the grits in the pan, the succotash all chopped and mixed, and the artichoke hearts draining on a paper towel. After that, everything came together in the time it took to cook the grits.

You can use almost any kind of meltable cheese in the grits. The original recipe calls for smoked cheddar, but plain sharp cheddar, chevre, or swiss would all be tasty in their own way, too.

Adapted from The Southern Vegetarian

serves four

Cheese Grits:

• 2 c vegetable stock
• 2 c milk
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 c grits
• 4 oz cheese (1 c shredded)

Combine stock, milk, and garlic in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Whisk in grits, reduce heat to low, and simmer until done, about 10 minutes. Add cheese, stir until melted. Salt and pepper to taste.

Succotash

• 1 T butter
• 1 T oil
• ¾ c fresh or frozen corn
• 1 medium green pepper, diced
• ½ c fresh or frozen peas
• 1 small minced onion
• dash cayenne or chipotle powder
• 1 tsp paprika
• ¼ tsp garlic powder
• ¼ tsp nutmeg
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp pepper

Heat butter and oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add remaining ingredients and cook, stirring only occasionally, until vegetables have browned a bit. Remove vegetables from pan.

Mustard Pan Sauce

• ¾ c vegetable stock
• 1 T whole-grain mustard

Deglaze the succotash skillet with the stock, add mustard and cook until reduced by half.

Panfried Artichoke Hearts

• ⅓ c cooking oil
• 3 large artichoke hearts, quartered, or one 12oz jar, drained and patted dry
• 1 large egg, beaten
• ½ c flour
• salt and pepper to taste

Toss artichoke hearts in egg, then in flour. Heat oil in a 10-inch skillet until shimmering, then fry artichokes for about 2 minutes per side until browned.