B Vegan - Grilled Artichokes!

Mr. B and I were seriously craving some vegan BBQ the other night. I happened upon some glorious looking artichokes at my second-favorite grocery, Whole Foods, and tried my hand (again) at grilling them. The reason the "again" is parenthetical is because I didn't feel like I had successfully grilled artichokes as of yet, and I wanted to try my hand at it again. Back on the horse. This time I steamed them for a bit before placing them on the grill, and that was exactly what they needed.

Step 1: Rinse artichokes
Step 2: Cut artichokes in half as pictured. CAREFULLY. They're delicious, but not worth losing an appendage over.
Step 3: Steam them for 10-15 minutes, depending on your tenderness preferences. I put the artichokes over cold water and turned on the heat, but didn't start the timer until I could hear the water boiling. I set the timer for 10 minutes and then turned off the heat when the timer went off. The coals on the Weber weren't ready yet, so I'd say I let them sit in there until the water was no longer "steamy". My tenderness preference would've called for another 5 minutes over steam, but Mr. B liked them that way. So, good.
Step 4: Remove artichokes from steamer with tongs. Again, CAREFULLY. No scalding necessary for delicious artichokes.
Step 5: Cut out the prickly thistle part. Those things are like needles on your tongue!! Get rid of every single one!!
Step 5: Spray with oil - with my favorite cooking toy, "Misto"
Step 6: Season to taste. Mr. B. is a master of seasonings, so when I cook for him I try to stick with the basics. Or have him do it. Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder. Boom-diggity.
Step 7: Grill them!! Our coals were SUPER hot, so we really didn't have them on for very long. And we kept them around the edge. But they got the crispiness and flavor we were looking for, so we achieved our goal! Wheeee!!
Step 8: Make your dip - preferably before the artichokes are ready. They're not as good when they're no longer hot. I don't have the wherewithal to debate the preferred dip for artichokes. That's some serious business, so I'm going to let you do what you do. If you're in the mayonnaise camp, of course I'm going to suggest Vegenaise. Duh. And lime. And dill. Hmm, I said I wasn't going to go there, but then I did. Oops.

Please let me know what kind of success or failure you had with your grilled artichoke adventure!

Much Love,
Annette