Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Cook's Guide entry for Endive along with all the Endive containing recipes presented on this site, with 5 recipes in total.

This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives a listing of all the Endive recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain Endive as a major wild food ingredient.

Endive, Cichorium endivia, is a leafy green vegetable that is part of the chicory genus and which belongs to the Asteraceae (daisy) family of flowering plants.

There are two main types of endive that are commonly cultivated:

Curly endive, or Frisée (var crispum). This type has narrow, green, curly outer leaves. It is sometimes called chicory in the United States and is called chicorée frisée in French. Further confusion results from the fact that frisée also refers to a technique in which greens are lightly wilted with oil.

Escarole, or broad-leaved endive (var latifolia) has broad, pale green leaves and is less bitter than the other varieties. Varieties or names include broad-leaved endive, Bavarian endive, Batavian endive, grumolo, scarola, and scarole. It is eaten like other greens, sauteed, chopped into soups and stews, or as part of a green salad.

In general, the outside leaves of an endive head are green and bitter. The inner leaves of the endive head are light green to creamy-white and have a much milder flavour. Like members of the chicory family, endives are often added to salads in combination with milder leaves to give a little more 'bite' to the flavour of the mixture.

Endive flavour can be made less bitter if it is cooked first. A common practice is to split the heads and then to cook either on a barbecue or a griddle pan so that the cut side is slightly caramelized and marked.