A few weeks ago I was watching a rerun of Everyday Italian with Giada De Laurentiis while I prepped our dinner for the evening. I love watching Giada effortlessly cook meals with all of her hair perfectly in place and her big, bright, beaming smile! Her passion for food is contagious and you can really feel her enthusiasm about every single ingredient she describes as she cooks.
On this particular episode she was making artichoke gratinata featuring frozen artichokes. I was immediately intrigued by the simplicity of the dish and the fact that she pulled it together in around 25 minutes. I decided that with a few tweaks I could make a pretty amazing gluten-free, vegetarian version for my artichoke-loving family and we too could enjoy a simple weeknight side dish like this one.
Giada's version of artichoke gratinata called for chicken broth which was an easy swap, although I do suggest using homemade vegetable broth if at all possible. It really adds a rich depth of flavor that you just can't achieve using store-bought broth. Giada also used bread crumbs in her version, which are off limits to us since we eat a gluten-free diet here in our home. I figured that I could pulse a few slices of gluten free bread in the food processor and toast the crumbs, but for me that was just one more step to add to the prep time. So I simply subbed in crispy brown rice cereal that I crushed by hand instead. The last little tweak that I made was to add chopped blanched almonds to the topping mixture. Almonds taste great and are good for you too, so I try to work them into my family's meals whenever possible.
The evening that I made this gratinata for my family I served it alongside gluten-free pasta tossed with fresh spinach, lemon juice, and Parmesan cheese. It was the perfect dinner for a busy weeknight!
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Elisa @ Insalata di Sillabe says
This truly looks amazing, plus I love how quick and easy it is to make! I guess it will become a staple side-dish in my house!
xo, Elisa
Meg van der Kruik says
Thanks Elisa! I hope you love it as much as we do:)
Julia Mueller says
I'm not gonna lie, I have a little bit of a woman crush on Giadia...she really is a flawless human. How? I will never know. I LOVE this artichoke gratinata! Substituting the bread crumbs for crispy brown rice cereal is just genius - Now I can revisit all those recipes involving breadcrumbs that I've been avoiding. Can't wait to try this awesome dish!!
Meg van der Kruik says
Ha! Julia, I have a girl crush too. I like to imagine that I look that graceful and pulled together in the kitchen, but when I look down and see my yoga pants and food stained apron I feel a little defeated. 😉 Brown rice cereal is great! One of my favorite things to use as a substitute, you can grind it up in the food processor for fine breadcrumbs too instead of the slightly chunkier replacement that I used here.
Alexis @ Hummusapien says
This looks INSANELY scrumptious. Love those brown rice crispies hiding in there! So lovely for spring, too.
Meg van der Kruik says
Thanks Alexis! Those brown rice crispies are a life saver.:)
Joanne says
I can't get enough of artichokes and they are especially delicious when bread crumb topped! I love your GF substitutions. I'm always trying to add almonds into my life also.
The Peace Patch says
Crunchy and nutty combined with artichokes and garlic is my kind of heaven! Many thanks for sharing your crazy yumful recipe! 🙂
Meg van der Kruik says
Yay! I am so glad you are digging the recipe. I hope you love it when you make it.:)
LaurenLL says
I'm compiling my own recipes in the app on Windows 8 and this recipe fits the bill. You mention using brown rice cereal as a gluten-free substitute for the original breadcrumbs. I was doing some spring cleaning in my kitchen and came across a package with crumbled rice cakes and saved them for just such a dish. We are not gluten-free and this is still sounds delicious.
Meg van der Kruik says
Awesome Lauren!!! I hope you love this dish as much as we do:)
Mani (A New Life Wandering) says
Yum! Sounds amazing and will definitely try it with pasta.
Kare Troughton says
Not only does this look exquisite, but I am so envious of your food styling skills!
And the rice cereal is a touch of genius. 🙂
Meg van der Kruik says
OMG Karen, thank you! I really appreciate that. You would be surprised how many pictures I have to edit out because of little hands reaching in and grabbing food. Haha! 😉 I could barely keep those brown rice crispies on the plate.
[email protected] says
I haven’t had gratinata for a long time, but I like the idea of adding artichoke hearts (they are one of my favorite toppings in pasta and on pizzas). This looks super easy to veganize, would love to top it with some vegan parmesan!
rogue1 says
This was so delicious. I added a 10oz bag of thawed baby spinach to the gratin. I need to increase the baking time to 15-20 minutes. Instead of rice cereal, I used puffed millet! I served mine over poletnta. My husband tried to steal the last serving that I had packed for my lunch!
Patty says
Is it possible to Mae this a few hours in advance and then put into the oven before guests come?