This week's vegetable is the broad-leaved endive, or escarole, a leafy, lettuce-like thing in the daisy family. I didn't do much research before picking this, just grabbed it at the store since it was one of the many veggies I'd always been intrigued by from afar, with it's sort of strange bullet-shape and pleasant compactness.
I'd already picked up some avocados, so I browsed Epicurious for an avocado/endive recipe and found a pretty basic salad recipe that I modified to fit the ingredients I had around the house. The resulting recipe was:
I had mixed feelings about the resulting salad. The dressing was pretty good, and the salad as a whole was light and fresh, but the endive really didn't do much for me. It was very bitter, and the dressing wasn't strong enough to counteract or balance it out. The avocado was so mild in comparison that I barely noticed it. Bitterness is for sure my least favorite kind of flavor, which is probably part of the reason why I've never been crazy about vegetables. I probably will need to figure out some kind of reliable way to counteract it. Anyway, the endive has certainly not become my new favorite food. Guess I'll hope for better luck next week.I'd already picked up some avocados, so I browsed Epicurious for an avocado/endive recipe and found a pretty basic salad recipe that I modified to fit the ingredients I had around the house. The resulting recipe was:
Whisk together the mustard, lime juice, pepper, and salt. Slowly add olive oil, whisking constantly to form an emulsion. Toss the avocado and endive in the dressing. (I put some paprika on the top to give it some more color.)
- 1 endive, sliced crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces
- 1/2 an avocado, cut into bite-size pieces
- 1 tsp. dijon mustard
- 1 Tbsp. lime juice
- 1 1/2 Tbsp. olive oil
- 1/2 tsp. pepper
- 1/4 tsp. salt
Yeah, endive is not exactly a starter vegetable. I'm not a big fan of bitter flavors, either.
If you do not already eat the usual favorite vegetables (I am thinking broccoli, spinach, carrots, etc.), try those first. They are hard to dislike.
Hehe, I'm not quite that much of a beginner. I eat most of the basic vegetables. There are just a few of those I need to make nice with.
Artichokessssss.