Raw or Roasted: Delicious Endive Recipes

Some of our favorite ingredients are the ones that are most versatile. We love getting a good deal on an item and then turning it into a variety of meals. Endive is one of those versatile ingredients that's delicious raw or cooked. As you’ll see, there’s so much you can do with this simple vegetable. Plus, you can still count endive as a serving of vegetables, even when it’s smothered in cheese.

What Is Endive?

The process by which  Belgian endive is grown is fascinating. Chicory plants are grown in fields throughout the spring and summer, until the leaves are shorn off in the fall. The roots are dug out of the ground and transferred to an indoor growing area that’s kept dark and damp. There, each root grows a single Belgian endive head in about a month. The California Endive Farms website features images of each step in the growing process.

You’ll find Belgian endive in the produce section near the other leafy greens. However, it’s more creamy yellow-white than green. Nor is endive leafy in the traditional sense, like spinach or kale. Instead, the  leaves are packed tightly into oblong heads connected by a root, similar to Brussels sprouts. You can peel them off in layers to use individually, or use an entire head at once, chopped or whole. Endive is a good source of fiber, Vitamins A and K.

Look for Belgian endive without spots or browning along the edges. Choose heads that are on the heavy side, indicating many layers of tightly packed leaves inside. Refrigerate your endive heads, and they will stay good for about a week. To keep them from browning,  don’t wash or cut them until you’re ready to use them.

Versatility of Endive

What’s great about endive is that it’s good raw or cooked. You can use individual leaves as  edible cups or surfaces for holding other ingredients, like a dollop of chicken salad or a spoonful of salsa. You can chop raw endive into small pieces for salad, and combine them with diced fruit, cheese, nuts, and vinaigrette. You can slice endive heads in half and roast them. You can even cook them whole, in the oven or on the grill.

Endive Recipes

Now that you know more about how endive is grown, we’ll share a few recipes we found. Let’s start with  this salad on Simply Recipes. Combine raw chopped endive with diced pears, gorgonzola cheese, and chopped walnuts. Dress your salad with vinaigrette; the recipe calls for a simple combination of olive oil and balsamic or apple cider vinegar. But you could also try the dressing in the next recipe from Food52.

This simple recipe from Food52 is a more interesting accompaniment to dinner than yet another green salad. Roast endive halves cut side down with olive oil and salt and pepper. Mix up some walnut vinaigrette and drizzle it over roasted endive. The dressing includes white wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, walnut oil, toasted walnuts, and sugar, salt, and pepper. You could also forego roasting the endive; just chop it and dress it.

This savory tart recipe from Serious Eats is a delicious way to incorporate endive into a brunch or dinner dish, or turn it into mini tarts for appetizers. First, blind-bake your crust. Then sauté endive with shallots or Vidalia onion in butter, and season with salt, pepper, garlic, thyme, and red pepper. Add some balsamic vinegar and a few anchovies. Whisk together eggs, cream, and grated Parmesan cheese, and combine with the sautéed endive and shallots. Pour the entire mixture into your blind-baked crust, and top it with slices of goat cheese before baking.

Finally, this endive gratin recipe (also from Serious Eats) makes endive almost unrecognizable. Wrap whole endive heads in ham, cover them in béchamel, and top with Gruyère cheese. This dish still qualifies as a serving of vegetables, but just barely.