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This little vegetable has been a nearly daily staple of mine for almost 2 years now. It's gotten a bad rap here (in the NLs) because it is seen as a food for old folks & typically served as an overcooked veggie.
The most frequent way I'm eating it though is instead of salad.
The beauty of chicory is that it stays fresh far longer than lettuce, is substantially cheaper and has a much nicer 'bite' & flavour.. at least if being slightly bitter is one of the things that doesn't deter you.
Over time they have taken some of the extreme bitterness out of them though (just like with sprouts).
What is a little-known fact about chicory is that it is a rather rich source of inulin, a soluble fiber.
Here's the wiki-entry on it
Around 1970 it was found that the root contains up to 20% inulin, a polysaccharide similar to starch. Since then, new strains have been created, giving root chicory an inulin content comparable to that of sugar beet (around 600 dt/ha). Inulin is mainly found in the plant family Asteraceae as a storage carbohydrate (for example Jerusalem artichoke, dahlia etc.). It is used as a sweetener in the food industry (with a sweetening power approximately 90% less than sucrose)[6] and is sometimes added to yogurts as a prebiotic. Inulin can be converted to fructose and glucose through hydrolysis. Inulin is also gaining popularity as a source of soluble dietary fiber. Chicory root extract is a dietary supplement or food additive produced by mixing dried, ground, chicory root with water, and removing the insoluble fraction by filtration and centrifugation. Other methods may be used to remove pigments and sugars. Fresh chicory root typically contains, by dry weight, 68% inulin, 14% sucrose, 5% cellulose, 6% protein, 4% ash, and 3% other compounds. Dried chicory root extract contains, by weight, approximately 98% inulin and 2% other compounds.[7] Fresh chicory root may contain between 13 and 23% inulin, by total weight.[8]
Inulin used to be part of Dannon yoghurts until they switched owners and the inulin was removed.. exit Dannon from my SO"s breakfast table. Instead we added inulin to our own PP Kabicel to increase the satiety level & fiber.
Recently when doing the math on cost per 100g of protein , I've discovered (pre-grilled & frozen) chicken breasts is even cheaper than egg whites are. So.. I've been heating up breasts on a bed of chicory leaves.. one of the easiest fast food dishes ever & very yummy to boot.. especially with realllly spicy & hot Surinam picallilli.
Hmm maybe 'healthy recipes' would have been a better choice even though this is not exactly a recipe.. just an idea to eat more chicory esp as a salad.
The common name here(US) for chicory as a salad vegetable is endive or Belgian endive. We tend to reserve chicory to mean the root; as Roland says, the coffee substitute.
At least I think what you are calling chicory is what we call Belgian endive.
Yes.. Belgian endive is another word for them.. apparently you discern between the veggie & the root. Actually we use 2 words too.. 'chicorei' & 'witlof' .. it's also mentioned in the Wiki-reference.
Most Dutch I know just think about the cooked version & think "old folks' food" but using this veggie as a salad has been a more tasty alternative.
ah. I didn't know that's what it was. It's about 3x as expensive as romaine. We use it as "garnish" lettuce, like Lisa said. A token to add variety in a mixture.
or
which is pretty good, except you have to sip it with beignets.
Even there that much?
But yes, this one one is local to us & true to other things being far less expensive locally. Like açai berries in Brazil for instance ..
The common name here(US) for chicory as a salad vegetable is endive or Belgian endive.
... sounds like andijvie? I've never seen this stuff, and I'm in Belgium!
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Vegetarian, consumer of large quantities of Quark cheese
Working my way from 76.4 to 58 kg (168 - 127.6 lbs)
Lifting a bit, schedule varies. Barbell weight: 22kg/48.4#
My mum had a repertoire of roughly 3 recipes, and she made us eat witlof salad at least 3x / week. Can't stand the stuff!
(still sounds like andijvie to me.. which is actually a nice food, mashed with potatoes, cubes of cheese, and some maggi. yum. makes me almost yearn for winter!)
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Vegetarian, consumer of large quantities of Quark cheese
Working my way from 76.4 to 58 kg (168 - 127.6 lbs)
Lifting a bit, schedule varies. Barbell weight: 22kg/48.4#
In praise of mundane chicory
I wish it wasn't a fancy import item here!
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