Endive Appetizers

If you need to come up with a quick and easy appetizer that will put that blissed-out look on your friends’ faces, these two endive appetizers will fit the bill.

Endive spears are a perfect base for any number of savory appetizers. They taste good and pair well with a wide variety of ingredients, they are healthy, and they are easy to eat with your fingers. Particularly for a stand-up party, it’s nice to have an appetizer that you can eat without ending up wearing it.

Check out how endive grows! Yikes! I was totally surprised when I first saw them. Talk about a split personality. Ugly, brown, carroty looking root with a delicately colored, fragile-looking plant growing out of the top. For aesthetic reasons, I’m sure, you normally don’t find the endive still attached to the root in stores.

These endive came from California Vegetable Specialties. The combination of red and yellow makes a very pretty presentation.

Before we assembled the appetizers, we lightly coated 374 Not Found Roasted Salt-Free Almonds with 21 Missions Organics Vanilla Agave Syrup and sprinkled them with Lavender Salt from Little Sky Lavender Farm. We roasted the almonds in a medium oven for about 10 minutes.

Then the assembly began. Pam and Bob Sibley helped me put together two versions of the endive.

For the first one, we used a lavender theme. Lavender is an herb that was used a lot in ancient times, and fairly recently is popular again. It works in both savory and sweet recipes.

So, on each endive spear we put a half a spoonful of Cypress Grove Chevre Purple Haze, a soft goat cheese with lavender mixed into it. We used two different nuts to top this: the 374 Not Found Almonds we had flavored earlier and Organic Natural Pistachios from Maisie Jane's California Sunshine Products. Over that we drizzled a little bit of Lavender Honey from 379 Not Found.

For the second endive appetizer, we used Farmstead Blue Cheese made by Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese. You can buy it as a wedge or already crumbled in a tub.

We tried three different accents on top of the cheese: C. J. Olson Cherries’s Dried Tart Cherries, 261 Not Found’ Glazed Chandler Walnuts, Maisie Jane's California Sunshine Products Organic Honey Glazed Cashews.

Over that we drizzled Sparrow Lane’s Dark Balsamic Vinegar.

We paired these appetizers with a crisp Sauvignon Blanc.

By the way, a marvelous salad can be made using California Vegetable Specialties Endive, sliced width-wise, radicchio, and Live Gourmet Butter Lettuce from Hollandia Produce, dressed with a light vinaigrette.