Ed. Note: I spent an hour on this post complete with helpful links, beautiful photos, and everything. Then something happened and, poof! It all was gone…Here’s the post again. No links this time, but you can Google, right?
Let’s get right down to it. I love endive (I grew up saying “on-DEEV.” You pronounce it however you want.). It’s a green similar to chicory, escarole, and radicchio and it’s wonderful raw or baked (with a little ham and emmentaler cheese sauce. Yum!). It's crunchy and mostly sweet with just the barest hint of bitterness.
Endive is widely available in supermarkets—even Trader Joe’s carries the red and green varieties bundled together. If you’ve seen it in the stores but have never bought it because you weren’t sure what to do with it, here are three easy recipes to try this summer. Enjoy!
Endive with Artisan Blue Cheese
This recipe is so easy it’s ridiclous. It would be lovely on a summer buffet or as a potluck dish for a BBQ or potluck. To gild the lily, you can top each portion with some chopped toasted hazelnuts.
- 2-3 Belgian endive (red or green or a mixture of both)
- 6 ounces of fancy blue cheese like Irish Cashel (my pref), Roaring 40’s, gorgonzola dolce, or Humboldt Fog
Carefully wash the endive and remove any battered or browned leaves. Remove the leaves and arrange in a spiral (circular) pattern on a large platter. Top the base of each leaf with a dab of cheese (a 1/2 teaspoon or so). Serve.
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Endive Salad with Fruit, Nuts, and Cheese
My husband likes to say that a perfect salad contains fruits, nuts, and cheese. Here’s one that meets his criteria, and is versatile to boot.
- 6-8 Belgian endive (red and green varieties)
- your favorite vinaigrette (or just a mixture of olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper)
- Fruit: thinly sliced Asian pear, thinly sliced Fuji apple, or two handfuls of halved grapes
- Nuts: a handful of toasted hazelnuts, pecans, or walnuts
- Cheese: 4 ounces of artisinal blue (see above), ricotta salata, or chevre
Carefully wash the endive and remove any battered or browned leaves. Cut the stem end off the endive, and leaving the endive whole, thinly slice it into julienne-ish strips. (Don’t panic, I said “ish!”). Place in salad bowl.
Add your choice of fruit to the salad bowl. Toss with vinaigrette.
Scatter nuts over salad and dot with cheese. Serve at once tossing again when salad is at the table. Serves 6.
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Endive Salad with Lolla Rosa Lettuce, Arugula, Roasted Golden Beets, Parsley, and Robiola (pictured)
This is one of our favorite salads. There’s something for everyone. Bunny eats the greens and the cheese. Wallie eats the beets and the cheese. J. eats everything but the beets. We work it out.
Keep the robiola chilled until you are ready to add it to the salad because it softens up quickly at room temperature. Tonight we substituted Humboldt Fog cheese because it’s what we had on hand, but I love the creamy sharpness of robiola in this.
Curly parsley often gets unfairly pooh-poohed by food snobs who declare it common and inferior to flat-leaf parsley. I happen to love curly parsley, especially in salads where it really stands out because of its curliness.
- 2 golden yellow beets
- 1 small onion
- olive oil
- sea salt and fresh ground pepper
- 2 Belgian endive
- 1 bunch lolla rossa (or other red leaf) lettuce
- 1 small bunch of argula, thick stems removed
- your favorite vinaigrette (or just a mixture of olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper)
- 4 oz. robiola cheese
- a handful of curly parsley, top leaves only, no stems
Preheat oven to 375º. Wash, peel, and quarter the beets. Peel and quarter the onion. Toss both with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Place in roasting pan and roast for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside. Let cool.
Wash, tear, and spin dry greens. Arrange in salad bowl. Add beet-onion mixture. Toss with vinaigrette. Dot salad with cheese, sprinkle with parsley leaves and serve.
[photo credit: Stefania Pomponi Butler]
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