What are cardoons?

Answer 1

healthy

Answer 2

Common name: Cardoon, Hathichuk हाथीचुक (Hindi)
Botanical name: Cynara cardunculus Family: Asteraceae (daisy family)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An old Victorian favourite, once grown as a vegetable and blanched for use rather like celery, cardoon is now valued for its striking silvery giant thistle like shape which adds a theatrical touch to a border. Cardoon is a magnificent perennial native to southern Europe, with spiny, gray-green foliage and purple, thistle-like flowers to five feet. In summer tall flower stems are topped by fat thistle buds which resemble small globe artichokes - the plants are close cousins. The buds finally open into large purple thistles which attract lots of bees; the dead heads often dry quite attractively on the plants. Native around the Mediterranean region, cardoons are thought to be the wild progenitors of the globe artichoke, Cynara scolymus - a plant only known in cultivation. The fleshy leaf bases of the cardoon are sometimes eaten cooked or raw, like celery. Both artichokes and cardoons have specialized bracts (phyllaries) that surround each composite flower head, the inner, soft base of which is edible in the artichoke. The name Cynara comes from the Greek kyon, a dog, a reference to the tooth-shaped phyllaries.

http://www.flowersofindia.net/catalog/slides/Cardoon.html

Answer 3

The cardoon (Cynara cardunculus), also called the artichoke thistle, cardone, cardoni or cardi, is a member of the thistle family related to the Globe artichoke. While the flower buds can be eaten much as the artichoke, more often the stems are eaten after being blanched by being wrapped or buried in earth.

Answer 4

This vegetable resembles a large bunch of wide flat celery. Popular in France, this vegetable is described as tasting like a cross between an artichoke, celery, and salsify. Also called "cardoni."

Answer 5

I was going to say
little comical drawn characters that have a bad cold ----
then I realized that this is in the food department---
So, I'll have to rely on someone else for this one !!

Answer 6

What Shivanginis said. Here is an easy and delicious recipe using cardoon:

http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/cardoongratin.htm

Answer 7

It is a cousin of the artichoke