chicory salad with autumn fruits

Chicory salad with autumn fruits is a typical dish for autumn and winter. I made already many recipes with these Belgian endives, but this variation is a real recommendation for January, to compensate for the overload of calories you had in December.

The goal of the recipe is to combine the bitter and sour taste of chicory and lemon juice and to contrast it with sweet autumn fruits and adding some salty accents of old cheese.

Chicory, also named Belgian endives, is a very popular bitter vegetable with white leaves.

Ingredients (for 2 persons):

• 1 chicory
• 1 red apple (red apples are sweeter)
• 1 mandarin
• a handful of walnuts
• 1 slice of old cheese
• lemon juice
• mustard

Method:

• Chop the chicory into fine pieces
• Drizzle them with some lemon juice, to prevent them from colouring.
• Peel the apple, remove the inner part and chop it into fine pieces.
• Mix the apple with the chicory, and again add a bit of lemon juice to prevent them from turning colour.
• Peel the mandarin, and remove the white parts as much as possible.
• Cut the parts into halves. This makes it easy to remove the seeds. It is not really pleasant to start fishing for the seeds when you have them in your mouth.
• Add the mandarin and the walnuts to the salad.
• Take a slice of old cheese, and cut it into pieces. Add it also to the salad.
• Add some mustard and mix everything well. You will now have a nice combination of sweet, bitter, sour and salty components.
• Serve with a thick slice of fresh coarse bread with a crunchy curst.

Chicory is one of my favourite vegetables. Please check some other recipes where I use them:

• oven dish with chicory and leek
• chicory leaves with apple, egg and smoked halibut
• salad of chicory and roasted figs
• Belgian endives with meatballs