How to prepare endives


How to prepare endives
A very classic recipe, but which can easily fail due to two main errors: too much water in bottom of dish because endives give off a lot, and endives that are too bitter so that children hate it.

Here is a method which avoids these two problems.
505 K 3.6/5 (254 reviews)
Grade this recipe:
Keywords:
Last modified on: February 14th 2012
For this recipe: Comment Send to a friend Ask me a question Follow Printable Diaporama
For 4 endives, you will need:

Change these quantities to make:
Change measures:
Times for this recipe
Preparation: 20 min.
Resting: 5 min.
Cooking: 3 min.
All in all: 30 min.
When should you start or finish this recipe?
If you start now, at , you will finish around : ?.Change start time
To finish around 7pm, you'll need to have started before: .Change end time

Step by step recipe


Stage 1 - ⌛ 10 min.
How to prepare endives  : Stage 1
Trim a little from the base of 5 endives (head of chicory), remove and discard any untidy leaves, then wash endives.

Stage 2 - ⌛ 3 min.
How to prepare endives  : Stage 2
Boil a large pan of salted water.

With a small sharp knife, remove a small cone from the bottom and discard it. The cone size depends on endive size, usually about half an inch is fine.

This reduces the endive's bitter taste.

Note:If endive are medium or big size, think to cut them in two, from top to bottom, to reduce cooking and blenching time.

Stage 3 - ⌛ 3 min.
How to prepare endives  : Stage 3
Put endives in boiling salted water for 2-3 minutes...

Stage 4 - ⌛ 5 min.
How to prepare endives  : Stage 4
... then remove them using a skimmer, put into very cold water.

You've just blanched endives, and we do that to reduce the bitterness still further.

Stage 5 - ⌛ 5 min.
How to prepare endives  : Stage 5
Leave endives in cold water for five minutes, then drain and dry them. The best way is to use a salad spinner, and then leave on a tea-towel.
Remarks
In this recipe I say "reduce bitterness" because we don't want to suppress it entirely: it's part of the endive taste, its character, that we should keep.
Keeping: Several days in the frifge, in a closed box.
Source: Home made.
Nutritional information
Proteins (gr)Carbohydrates (gr)Fats (gr)Energy value (in k-calories)Energy value (in k-joules)
Whole recipe3 RDI=1 %10 RDI=1 %070 RDI=4 %290 RDI: 4 %
Per 100 g1 RDI=0 %4 RDI=0 %020 RDI=1 %80 RDI: 1 %
Per endives03 RDI=0 %020 RDI=1 %70 RDI: 1 %
The % figures are calculated in relation to the Recommended Dietary Intake , or RDI of 2,000 k-calories (or 8,400 k-joules) per day for a woman
How much will it cost?
  • For 4 endives : 0.45 €
  • Per endives : 0.15 €

Change currency:

Note: Be careful, these prices are only an estimate, you can consult the table of prices by ingredients used for this estimate.
This recipe uses (among others)
Other recipes you may also like
Quick bramble jelly
Quick bramble jelly
Fruit jelly is jam made with the juice only. All the skin and seeds are strained out, which gives a very smooth texture. Here's a quick recipe which will give you an excellent jelly, and which keeps the full flavour of the blackberries thanks to its very brief cooking.
July 5th 2013298 K4.2 50 min.
Spicy hot toasted cashew nuts
Spicy hot toasted cashew nuts
Toasting cashews greatly improves both their flavour and texture over the plain raw nuts. This is also the ideal opportunity to spice them up a little, like in this very simple recipe.
September 20th 202064 K 30 min.
Chestnut cake
Chestnut cake
This delightful cake is doubly chestnutty: it contains chestnut flour, and sweet chestnut purée.
August 28th 2025356 K5 1 hour 15 min.
Toasted almond cake
Toasted almond cake
A layer cake, with toasted almonds in the chocolate part.
July 5th 2016257 K4.4 2 hours 2 min.
Exotic fruit tart
Exotic fruit tart
An exotic fruit tart (bananas, kiwi and pineapple), with crisp pastry and almond cream which are cooked beforehand. It's a rather simple recipe, but the final result will impress your guests.
May 27th 2020340 K5 2 hours 25 min.
News list of cooking-ez.com

Sign up to receive the latest recipes (next batch due to be sent on 2026-03-01)

*Your e-mail Your first name or nickname
I am not a leaving thing
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Post a comment or question
Posted by:
I am not a leaving thing

Follow this recipe (as 11 people already do)
If you are interested in this recipe, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the recipe is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.
I am not a leaving thing
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.

Back to top of page