Dive into Endives

I don’t know what has gotten in to me lately, but for the past few months I absolutely have to eat Belgium Endives at least once a week! Every time I go grocery shopping they look at me and say, “You know you can’t leave me here!” (Those endives, they’re very fresh…)

They’re bitter and I seem to crave that bitter taste. I combine it with agave nectar or honey, balsamic vinaigrette, green apples or pears, walnuts, and goat cheese. An absolutely divine combination!

I googled endives to find out possible reasons for my hankerin’:…

It seems that endives:

• contain essential amino acids, fats, starch, potassium, calcium, iron, magnesium, and B1, B2, C, K and P vitamins.
• stimulate appetite
• are a light laxative
• are known from ancient times to possess health benefits, and were cultivated by the Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians
• are ideal for weight loss
• are 95 percent water and contain only 7.5 calories
per cup.

Sounds like my body must be craving all the good vitamins and amino acids and enjoying the cleansing effect! It just feels so right eating them. Even taste-wise, they just make culinary sense: The Chinese and Indian Cultures believe all meals should have the 5 elements of taste (sweet, sour, salty, spicy and bitter) in them. Bitter is the one we often leave out! So I’m getting good and bitter, but, American that I am, offset it with some sweet – such as agave nectar.