I Dream of Endive

An unseasonably warm Springish gust has blown across my home this week in mid-February. This combined with the incredibly bright full moon has been inspiring some great creative projects. Nothing like a taste of Spring to motivate experimentation. 

So walking into the coop on Monday, I was struck by a beautiful big bunch of a  curly, curly light green vegetable and recognizing it as curly endive, I decided that this week would be the week of endive play. 

Up until this week, I have had little experience with this green. My only memorable experience of eating this vegetable was as slimy green strands in a salty chicken soup. Not a grand memory. Endive is a leafy green that belongs to the daisy family. It's soft like lettuce but unlike lettuce, it is often cooked. It is also called frisee and is often used in French, Italian, and Bavarian cooking. 

Europeans often eat curly endive as a raw salad so that's where I began my experimentation. Actually, I ran into a lovely friend at the coop and she and I began the raw endive experimentation by chomping down a big leaf like little hungry bunnies. As a raw salad green, endive is bitter which makes it an excellent spring cleansing plant but not the most enjoyable eating experience unless you are particularly partial to bitter tastes. To counteract the bitter, you could also add sweet elements to your salad such as roasted beets, walnuts, and sliced pear. If you're a cheese fan, goat cheese would be nice.

The next morning, I decided to toss some curly endive into a little omelette. That proved to be a delicious way to enjoy curly endive. Just like spinach, rip of a few leaves of curly endive and add them to your eggs for just two-three minutes until they're wilted, but not slimy. 

Traditionally, endive is often added to bean soups as a final step in the preparation of the soup. Because it was so warm this week, I did not venture into the soup realms, but I did discover a delicious way to enjoy endive.

Here goes:

Pesto Tempeh with Sauteed Frisee'

(Quick and easy!)

Serves 2-3:

Ingredients:

Bunch of Curly Endive or Frisee

1 large onion

1 package of tempeh

2 tbs olive oil

2 carrots

3 tbs pesto

Begin by chopping your onion, carrot, and tempeh into bite size pieces. 

Wash and chop or rip curly endive into bite size pieces. 

Heat 1-2 tbs olive oil in a large skillet on the stove.  Add onions to the skillet and sauté on medium until they begin to turn translucent 2-5 minutes. Add carrots and then add tempeh and continue to saute. Add pesto and toss to evenly coat and lastly, add frisee and saute for a final 2-5 minutes until the frisee is bright green and wilted but not limp and slimy. 

Serve over your favorite grain...quinoa, millet, couscous or try eating it over spaghetti squash for an added veggie kick.