Endive Salad with Walnuts and Dijon Dressing
Inside: How to make a fall or winter salad with Endive, nuts and piquant mustard dressing that’s easy enough for everyday and fancy enough for holidays and company.
Endive lettuce is the star of this seasonal salad recipe. It’s assembled in minutes using Belgian Endive, crunchy toasted walnuts, hard-boiled eggs and a bracing Dijon dressing. Serve this Endive Salad as a first course or a vibrant side dish with chicken or pork.
Endive lettuce and other chicory lettuces have distinctive, slightly bitter flavors, which is a nice change of pace to standard iceberg lettuce. I use chicory lettuces like radicchio to make my Radicchio Mandarin Brussels Sprouts Salad, Zesty Tuna Lettuce Wraps, and curly Endive for this Frisée Salad with Lardons and Poached Eggs.
My French grandmother, Madou, made a version of this endive salad as the first course for family dinners. Her recipe had three ingredients: Belgian Endive, hard-boiled eggs and a creamy, bold mustard dressing.
My slightly stepped-up version includes crunchy toasted walnuts, shaved parmesan cheese and chives for garnish. These ingredients create a bold, lively contrast of textures and flavors that is impossible to ignore.
The Dijon mustard dressing is tangy and bracing, almost compounding the bitterness from the endive lettuce and walnuts. That’s the beauty of it. The flavors are bold, delicious and satisfying.
Why you’ll love this recipe:
- You can make it in 20 minutes or less.
- It’s a sturdy fall and winter salad that won’t wilt under the dressing; therefore, it can be prepped beforehand.
- This Belgian endive recipe is no wall-flower; the flavors differ from most salads. This one is more brash and dynamic.
- The recipe can be halved, doubled or tripled, depending on your number of diners.
- It adapts well to variations.
What Is Belgian Endive?
- It is related to chicory, like escarole, radicchio, curly Endive (frisee lettuce), and red Endive.
- Belgian Endive is a beautifully unique lettuce with pale yellow-tinged leaves clustered into a tight torpedo-like shape. The leaves are so pale and light because endive lettuce is grown away from sunlight, preventing them from turning green and opening up.
- A fresh head of Endive will come in a tight cluster with a creamy white base and pale yellowish tips. The whiter areas are slightly less bitter and milder than the chartreuse ends.
Ingredients in Endive Salad:
- Belgian Endive–look for pale white and yellow heads with no dark blemishes and tight leaves. According to this MSU newsletter, since Endive is grown under more sanitary conditions, there’s no need to wash the leaves.
- Garlic–I recommend freshly chopped garlic for a fresher flavor. Depending on the size of your bulb, you may need more than one garlic clove to equal 1½ tsp.
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil–use a good everyday brand to create the dressing.
- Dijon Mustard–to emulsify the dressing and give it a punchy mustard flavor.
- Black Pepper–I recommend using your pepper mill to grind pepper freshly. This will give you the best flavor.
- Walnuts–have a distinctive flavor that marries well with the lettuce and punchy Dijon dressing. Be sure to toast them for a significant crunch factor.
- Hard Boiled Eggs–balances the salad with a softer, more neutral flavor and creamy texture.
- Parmigiano Reggiano–this is the “salt component”. I don’t add salt to the dressing, but shaves of parmesan cheese will give each bite a rich umami saltiness.
- Chives–are optional, but I love them because of their fresh oniony flavor and because they add a pop of color to the recipe.
Step-by-step instructions:
- Place two eggs in a small saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring the water to a boil and cook for one minute. Remove the pan from the heat and let the eggs rest in the hot water for 10 minutes to finish cooking. Transfer to an ice bath to cool before peeling the eggs.
2. While the eggs are cooking, toast the walnuts on a rimmed baking sheet in a 375° oven for 8-10 minutes or until they’re toasted, crunchy and aromatic.
3. To prep the lettuce, remove damaged leaves, trim the end and pull the leaves away from the head. You’ll need to continue cutting the core as you go because it is thicker at the bottom and narrows toward the top, extending through about half of the head of lettuce. As you trim the core, it releases the petals, which you can arrange in a bowl or on a platter.
4. Add the garlic, mustard and pepper to a small bowl. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil, as you whisk constantly until the Dijon dressing is thick and creamy. This takes 1-2 minutes. Set aside.
5. Slice the eggs into quarters or chop roughly (if you have a fancy wire-cutter egg slicer, this is a great time to pull it out). Arrange the egg over the lettuce.
6. Use a vegetable peeler to shave strips of parmesan cheese over the salad.
7. Drizzle the mustard dressing liberally and evenly over the endive lettuce so that each leaf has a little dressing.
8. Sprinkle the toasted walnuts over the salad.
9. Sprinkle the dish with chopped chives and serve.
Pro-Tips:
- Don’t toss the salad. Let guests serve themselves a portion to cut and mix on their plates. Ideally, each bite should have a whisper of the Dijon dressing, a bit of egg and a crunchy finish from the toasted nuts.
- For a dynamic presentation, arrange and serve the salad in a shallow, medium, or large bowl or a large platter.
Variations:
- A tablespoon of lemon juice added after the oil will thin the dressing and brighten the flavor.
- in place of the walnuts, try pecans, cashews or pistachios. Avoid peanuts.
- Swap blue cheese dressing for the mustard dressing.
- Use other types of chicory lettuce for this salad.
- Add thin slices of apples, pears or even freshly supremed orange segments to add a sweet taste.
Make Ahead:
- Make a few components 3-5 days ahead of time. The dressing can be assembled and kept covered in the fridge for five days (whisk again before drizzling). Toasted walnuts can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for three days, and the hard-boiled eggs can be kept for three days in the refrigerator.
- Assemble the entire endive salad up to 2-3 hours ahead and keep it loosely wrapped in the fridge until you’re ready to serve.
Storage:
- Leftovers can be kept in an airtight container in the fridge for 1-2 days, though they are best on the same day they are assembled.
More seasonal salad recipes:
Endive Salad
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1½ teaspoons chopped garlic
- 5 tablespoons olive oil
- 1-2 grinds black pepper
- 2 heads endive
- ¼ cup walnuts roughly chopped
- 2 eggs
- 1 ounce parmesan cheese from a wedge
- 1 tablespoon chopped chives optional
DIRECTIONS:
TOAST THE WALNUTS:
- Preheat the oven to 375° F. Spread ¼ cup walnuts on a sheet pan and bake for 8-10 minutes until toasted and crunchy. Set aside.
FOR THE HARD-BOILED EGGS:
- Place 2 eggs in a small saucepan, cover with water and bring to a boil. Cook for 1 minute and set aside to rest for 10 minutes. Transfer the eggs to an ice bath to chill.
FOR THE DIJON DRESSING:
- In a small bowl, add 1½ teaspoons chopped garlic, 1-2 grinds black pepper and 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard. Slowly drizzle 5 tablespoons olive oil into the mustard mix while stirring constantly to emulsify the dressing. Set aside.
ASSEMBLING THE SALAD:
- Pull the 2 heads endive apart into individual leaves. (Trimming the root end as you go to make the edges neater as they are pulled from the head. Arrange in a shallow bowl or on a platter.
- Peel the shells from the eggs and cut into wedges or roughly chop them. Arrange egg over the endive lettuce and use a vegetable peeler to shave 1 ounce parmesan cheese over the leaves.
- Drizzle the dressing over the salad and sprinkle with the
- If you're using shredded parmesan cheese, sprinkle it evenly over the endive. If you have a whole block of parmesan, use a vegetable peeler to shave thin slices over the salad.
- Sprinkle with the toasted walnuts and 1 tablespoon chopped chives to serve.
NOTES:
- You can assemble the entire salad up to 2 hours before serving. Cover with plastic wrap and keep in the refrigerator until you’re ready to serve.
- Conversely, assemble the dressing and prep the toasted walnuts and hard-boiled eggs several days in advance. Assemble the salad in about 5 minutes just before serving.
- If you have an egg slicer, this is an excellent place to use it.
NUTRITION:
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I remember this salad! So different and special…and delish. I’ve always been temped to sprinkle with blue cheese! Will have to make for the fall !
I’ve never had endive but this looks AMAZING! Pinned 🙂
Thank you, Pragati! You must try endive! It completely diverges from plain lettuce!
This looks delicious! It is literally making my mouth water. I really want to just reach into my screen and grab your plate!!! Will definatley be saving this recipe.
Thanks, Leah! There is a ton of flavor in this salad!