As late-winter turns to early-spring, we’ve made it a priority to take a Saturday morning walk to the CUESA farmer’s market each week. It’s amazing to see how quickly the variety of produce has increased over the past few weeks. Last week one of our favorite vendors, Dirty Girl Produce, had a box of beautiful Belgian endive at the market. With the warmer weather, I’ve been in a grilling mood and Clayton thought these would be perfect on the grill.
We brought our endives home and wrapped each one in a damp paper towel, sealed them in a ziplock bag, and put them in the refrigerator (a method of storing greens that Clayton’s mom taught us). We were a little concerned because we didn’t get to use them for a week, but they were still as fresh as the day we bought them when we took them out of the bag.
For grilling, we don’t buy specialized grill tools. We either use our finger to test doneness and we have multiple pairs of basic tongs like these. For grilling, just get the longest size possible to keep your hands away from the heat. They are inexpensive so you can have multiple pairs so you don’t handle raw food and cooked food with the same tongs.
This simple salad is an example of how simple preparations can make the best use of beautiful ingredients.
- endive
- olive oil
- salt
- pepper
- 1 small shallot
- 1 meyer lemon
- 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil
- ½ tsp dijon mustard
- Cut endives in half lengthwise. Brush the cut side with olive oil.
- Put cut side down on a hot grill for 2-3 minutes, or until they just begin to soften and have nice grill marks. If your endives are large, turn them over and cook a few minutes on the other side as well. Remove from the grill, drizzle with with meyer lemon and shallot dressing, and add a touch of finishing salt.
- To make the Meyer Lemon and Shallot Dressing: Zest and juice the meyer lemon and finely mince the shallot. Whisk all the ingredients together in a small bowl, adjusting the amount of olive oil to your preference (it should be about half oil, half lemon juice). Season to taste with salt and fresh ground pepper.