Endive Picture

Endive

This leafy green can be a bit confusing because it goes by a number of names (depending on variety) including chicory, frisée (pronounced free-ZAY) and curly endive. Even more confusing, it’s not the same thing as another kind of endive – more accurately Belgian endive (pronounced on-DEEV), which has cylindrical shaped leaves. Instead, this endive is rather shaggy and bushy with pale yellow leaves. It can have a slightly bitter flavor but is milder than the other members of this chicory family.

Endive Nutrition Facts

  • Endive provides an:
  • Excellent source of vitamin K
  • Good source of folate
  • Vitamin A
Picture of Endives

Growing Information

Curly endive can be sold as a whole head in bulk. Product destined for this use is hand-harvested and packed into cartons in the field. It is also often used as part of a salad mix. For this purpose, it is mechanically harvested or mowed as a baby, packed into totes and shipped to a processing facility for packaging with other leafy greens. Endive takes from 85 to 100 days to grow from seed to maturity.

Usage Ideas

Endive is the perfect accent to any salad

Frisée aux lardons

Combine browned bacon bits (along with some of its rendered fat) with olive oil, mustard and lemon juice to form a vinaigrette. Toss the endive with the dressing and serve topped with a poached egg, shaved Gruyere cheese and toasted croutons.