Cardoons substitute

Best substitute

Celery hearts plus artichoke hearts together

2 parts celery to 1 part artichoke by weight, used 1:1 for the cardoons

Best for gratins and baked cardoon dishes

Close match

The best overall answer. Blanch the pale inner celery stalks for five minutes in acidulated water so they soften without going limp, and add drained artichoke hearts near the end. You get the right shape and stringy bite from the celery and the unmistakable thistle flavour from the artichoke. It is slightly less bitter than real cardoons and a bit fresher-tasting.

Other cardoons substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Canned or frozen artichoke hearts
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight
Gets the flavour right, which is the hardest part, because cardoons and artichokes are the same plant family and taste unmistakably related.
What changes
What you lose is the long stalk shape and the celery-like crunch, since artichoke hearts are already soft. Canned ones are also slightly sour from the brine, so rinse them, and they will make a softer, more yielding dish overall.
Best for
gratins baked with cheese and cream, fritti and fried dishes, pasta sauces, baked with breadcrumbs
Skip any boiling step entirely, since they are cooked; just pat them dry and go straight to the frying or baking. Frozen artichoke hearts are firmer than canned and closer to cardoon texture.
3Celery hearts
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight
Structurally almost perfect: the same ribbed stalks, the same strings running down the back that need peeling, and the same ability to hold their shape through a long braise.
What changes
The flavour is the gap. Celery is grassy, saline and fresh with no bitterness at all, so a gratin made with it tastes clean and vegetal rather than deep and slightly bitter.
Best for
gratins, braises and stews, bagna cauda dippers, anything where the stalk shape matters
Use only the pale inner stalks, peel the strings off the outside, and cook with a strip of lemon peel to add a faint bitterness. Adding even a couple of artichoke hearts lifts it considerably.
4Fennel stalks and hearts
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight
Similar ribbed structure and it softens to a comparable tenderness in the oven, so it behaves right.
What changes
The anise sweetness is the difference: it makes a gratin taste sweet and aromatic instead of bitter and savoury, which is a genuinely good dish in its own right but clearly not cardoons. Less bitter and noticeably sweeter.
Best for
gratins with cheese and cream, roasting, braising, winter vegetable dishes
Roasting or braising mellows the anise a lot, so it is much less intrusive cooked than raw. Do not use it for bagna cauda, where the sweetness fights the anchovy and garlic.
5Belgian endive, halved lengthwise
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight
The closest match for cardoon's bitterness among common vegetables, which makes it the right pick when the bitter note is the point, especially as a raw dipper.
What changes
It collapses to almost nothing when cooked though, with no fibre and no chew, so it cannot stand in for the substantial stalk in a gratin or a fritto.
Best for
raw dippers for bagna cauda, quick braises, salads alongside rich dressings
Brush cut endive with lemon so it does not brown. For bagna cauda it is arguably better than a substitute, since raw endive is a traditional partner for the dip in Piedmont.
6Celeriac cut into batons
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight
Dense, earthy and nutty, and it makes a very good winter gratin.
What changes
It is a poor cardoon impersonation: no bitterness, no strings, no stalk shape, and a firm starchy bite closer to a root vegetable than a stem. Choose it when you want a winter vegetable that works with the same cream, cheese and anchovy flavours rather than when you want to fool anyone.
Best for
gratins, purees, roasting with cheese and breadcrumbs, when celery and artichokes are unavailable
Cut it into batons the size of the cardoon pieces and boil in acidulated water for 8 to 10 minutes before baking. It browns nicely, which cardoons do not.

What is Cardoons?

Cardoons is the long, silvery, ribbed stalk of a cultivated thistle closely related to the globe artichoke, eaten as a winter vegetable and sold in Italy as cardi, cardoni or gobbi, and tasting like a cross between artichoke hearts and celery.

Cooking tips

Cardoons brown within minutes of being cut, the way artichokes do. Fill a bowl with cold water and the juice of a lemon before you start, and drop each trimmed rib straight in; skip this step and the finished dish is grey.
Peel the strings off. Run a vegetable peeler or paring knife down the outside of each rib to strip away the tough fibrous threads, exactly as you would with a stringy outer celery stalk. Unpeeled cardoons are unpleasant to chew no matter how long you cook them.
They must be boiled before any other cooking, and for longer than seems reasonable: 20 to 45 minutes in salted acidulated water, until a knife slides into a rib with no resistance. Undercooked cardoon is stringy and aggressively bitter, and this single mistake is what makes people decide they dislike the vegetable.
Add a squeeze of lemon or a splash of milk to the boiling water to keep them pale, a standard Piedmontese trick. Some cooks add a spoonful of flour to the water for the same reason.
The leaves and spines are inedible, so strip them off and discard them, and trim the very tough base and any hollow, woody outer ribs. A big bunch yields much less usable vegetable than it appears to, so buy generously.
Choose the pale inner ribs, and if you can find gobbi, the hilled-up blanched cardoons grown covered from the light, buy those; they are far milder and more tender than dark green outer stalks, which are the bitter ones.

Frequently asked questions

Are cardoons the same as artichokes?

They are the same species group, grown for different parts. The globe artichoke is bred for its flower buds; the cardoon is bred for its thick leaf stalks, and its buds are small and spiny. They taste closely related, which is exactly why artichoke hearts are the best flavour substitute, and it is also why cardoons are sometimes sold as artichoke thistle.

Why are my cardoons bitter and stringy?

Almost always undercooking, plus skipping the peeling. Cardoons need 20 to 45 minutes at a simmer in acidulated water before they go anywhere near a gratin dish or a frying pan, and the fibrous strings on the outside of each rib have to be peeled off first. Dark green outer ribs are also far more bitter than the pale inner ones, so use the tender centre and discard the tough outside.

Can you eat cardoons raw?

The pale inner ribs of very young, tender cardoons are eaten raw in Piedmont as dippers for bagna cauda, and that is the main exception. Everything else should be peeled and boiled first, because mature cardoons raw are tough, stringy and unpleasantly bitter. If you want a raw dipper and your cardoons are large, use celery hearts or Belgian endive instead.

Can I just leave cardoons out of bagna cauda?

Yes, easily, because bagna cauda is a dip served with an assortment of raw and cooked vegetables and cardoons are only the most traditional of them. Peppers, celery hearts, endive, fennel, roasted onions and boiled potatoes are all standard. If you leave them out, add something with a bitter edge such as endive or radicchio, because that bitterness is what balances the anchovy, garlic and oil.

When are cardoons in season and where do I buy them?

Late autumn through winter into early spring, peaking around the holidays, which is why they appear in Piedmontese Christmas menus and on Italian-American Thanksgiving tables. Look in Italian groceries, farmers markets and stores serving Italian and Spanish communities. They are regionally scarce, so if you see them, buy them; jarred or frozen cardoons are also sold in some Italian delis and save all the trimming work.

Related substitutes

More vegetables & aromatics substitutes

Cardoons substitute

Other cardoons substitutes

2Canned or frozen artichoke hearts

3Celery hearts

4Fennel stalks and hearts

5Belgian endive, halved lengthwise

6Celeriac cut into batons