Years ago, we ate at the charmingly dark and popular restaurant Estella in New York City. Naturally, we had to order their famous endive salad.
Since then, this similar version has become one of our easy go-to salads, especially during the fall and winter. We plate it slightly differently, but it works just the same. We like to have a bite of everything in each endive leaf. In the United States, endive tends to be on the more expensive side, but in Switzerland and France it’s inexpensive and a common vegetable in the fall and winter.
The salad is easy to make for a simple lunch or as a side for dinner to go with anything from fish or pork chops to steak or chicken. Endive is also easy to wash since it comes really clean (at least it does here) so we’re always excited when endive comes into season again. You can make the dressing ahead of time, so you can make the salad multiple times each week. We love it so much, we would eat it almost every night.
Endive Winter Salad
Ingredients
- 2 garlic cloves
- 4 large anchovy fillets
- 2 tablespoons vinegar
- ¼ cup olive oil
- black pepper
- 1 ½ cups ½-inch cubes of day-old sourdough
- olive oil
- kosher salt
- 1 cup walnuts
- black pepper
- chile flakes
- Pecorino
- 4 endives
- Black pepper
- Blue cheese
- 1 medium orange
- olive oil, or a nut oil like hazelnut or walnut oil
Instructions
- Blend all of the ingredients in a small food processor and set aside.
- Toast the bread and walnuts in the oven at 350F until golden brown. Add it all to a food processor and pulse until coarse but uniform. Set aside. If serving immediately, you can toss the granola with the vinaigrette.
- Trim the bottom of each endive. Remove each leaf, wash, and pat dry. Llay out the endive on a plate. Evenly spread the granola vinaigrette mixture. Add on top the zest of an orange, the juice of an orange, and the blue cheese. Top with a bit of cracked pepper and drizzle with olive oil or use another nut oil like walnut oil to finish.