*Disclosure: This post is part of my ongoing relationship with the folks from California Endive Farms. I’ve received complementary boxes of endive over the past few months and I am being compensated to develop recipes to share with you; all opinions expressed here are 100% mine.
I discovered grilled endive last year when I came up with this grilled endive caprese salad; I make it all the time now. Pretty much every time I fire up the grill, I throw some nutritious endive on there: the heat softens it up and does away with any bitterness.
Grilled endive is great on it’s own as a side dish; it’s also a nice addition when chopped and thrown into salads.
You can also slice it lengthwise…
…and put it on a sandwich.
This grilled endive salad recipe and the related open-faced sandwich (above) is something I’m a little obsessed with lately. I’ve devoured one or the other a couple of times this week after I’ve been to the gym in the morning (where I do crossfit or lift weights for an hour or so). With the veggies, the protein from the steak, the carbs from the sourdough bread, and the high quality fat in the homemade dressing, it’s the perfect lunch as far as I am concerned.
(The open-faced sandwich is basically the same as the salad in terms of its components. I love salads, and find them super easy and satisfying to eat, but sometimes I like something I can really sink my teeth into, you know? The only difference between the salad and the sandwich is that I left the steak slices larger, I cut the endive differently, and I used a bigger tomato from my garden instead of a bunch of little ones. If you make everything for the salad, but you aren’t really in the mood for a salad, you will have more than enough to make 2 open-faced sandwiches.)
About the dressing: I am not sure it’s really a ranch dressing (maybe it’s more of a “green goddess”?), but I am sure it’s awesome. Seriously awesome. I usually stick to olive oil-based dressings, but I thought a creamy, herby dressing would be perfect for this salad. I was right!
The dressing whips up in a jiffy in the blender. I used a combo of my diy crème fraîche and buttermilk as the base and I just love it. Greek yogurt (or an all-natural sour cream) would work too, I think. Feel free to play with the amount of herbs and the garlic. Have fun with it, and use the leftovers for dipping all sorts of veggies and anything else you can think of. Heaven.
I really like the chunks of slightly grilled bread in this salad, but you can leave them out and have your bread on the side, if you like. Or omit it from the meal entirely if you don’t “do” bread. If you don’t eat bread, I’d add another form of carbs to this meal: maybe some quinoa or rice or another grain, or some fruit. Too many carbs in the diet can be problematic but I am not really of the opinion that’s it’s healthy to eat very low carb.