Healthy: Braised Endives

Braising is a common technique for making bitter greens like Belgian endive less bitter and more rich, creating a complex vegetable dish out of just a few ingredients. It's hard to screw up, which makes it a safe bet for people trying to create a nice meal without a massive array of ingredients or difficult techniques. Braising endives is no exception.

This recipe is simple and reasonably healthy. You can take this simple base recipe and make it richer (and in turn less healthy) by substituting chicken stock, duck stock, or white wine instead of water. You can also add herbs like thyme or tarragon to make it more interesting. Many recipes floating around the internet call for a lot more butter than this. Personally I find too much fat washes out the flavor and destroys the balance of bitterness from the endive so if I want a richer dish I will opt for using white wine rather than more fat.

Braised endive works well as a side dish with both poultry and fish. It is probably most common with fish but you can serve it successfully with chicken, duck, or Cornish hen. French, Belgian, Dutch and English poultry or fish dishes can work with braised endive. It also pairs nicely on a plate with squash, potato and other earthy-tasting vegetables.

Braised Endive Recipe

Details:

Serving: 4
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 40 minutes

Equipment:

• Dutch oven, frying pan (with lid), medium-sized pot (with lid), or saute pan (with lid)
• Kitchen utensils
• Measuring spoons and bowls
• Knife and cutting board
• Stove

Ingredients:

• 10-12 Belgian endive
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup water (or stock or white wine)

Recipe steps:

1. Cut the endives in half. Then remove the hard base of each endive, trying to leave the rest of the endive intact. 
2. Melt the butter in your chosen cooking vessel over medium heat
3. When the butter is melted, lay the endives in a single layer in the butter. 
4. Sprinkle the lemon juice over the endives. Then sprinkle the salt over them.
5. Gently pour the water down the side of the cooking vessel so you don't wash off the salt or juice.
6. Reduce heat to low and place the lid on the cooking vessel. 
7. Braise (cook) for thirty minutes.
8. The endives should be tender. Remove the lid and turn the heat up to medium.
9. Let the liquid evaporate and the endives will start to brown. Turn endives until all sides have browned.
10. Remove and serve.