Endive
Endive grows in four to six inch tapered bundles. The leaves are greenish-yellow on the edges with a creamy white middle. Endive is grown in total darkness to prevent the leaves from turning green. Belgian endive has a slightly bitter taste and a crunchy bite. It's great for dipping into hummus, guacamole, or any other dip you might create. The peak season for endive is November through April.
Selection and Storage
Avoid any endive with brown edges, rusty spots or feels slimy. I store my endive, unwashed, wrapped in terry towel inside a plastic bag in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Preparation Tips
Never submerge endive in water.
Simply cut the stem and pull off the loose leaves you plan to consume.
Wrap the remainder in the terry towel and store inside a plastic bag in the refrigerator.
If you use endive in a salad, remember that it has a bitter taste and less is more!
Remove any discolored leaves or brown at the root area... trim the bottom and scale off the outer leaves.
Dips, Sauces, Dressings and Condiments
Hummus du RobART
Hummus on fresh green and purple endive, avocado slices, Perfectly Pickled Carrots, sliced apple, and Tofurky Slices rolled on a toothpick.
Hummus is a staple in our refrigerator. It travels well as a snack food and it's great for a quick meal. We love scooping it up with pickled carrots, raw carrots, endive, apple wedges, celery, chips, or crackers. It also makes a great pannini sandwich.
For those of you who don't want to take the time to make this, Trader Joe's makes a great chemical and preservative free product that is just as good as mine. In fact they have several variations that are very good. Most supermarkets are beginning to carry more healthful products like this... just remember to read the labels and choose one without preservatives or additives.
Ingredients
2 cups dried garbanzo beans or 2 cans
6 cups water
2 lemons juiced
1 tablespoon organic vinegar
2 tablespoons tahini
8 garlic cloves minced
Tabasco Chipotle Hot Sauce... or your choice or crushed red chili flakes
1/4 cup tamari
4 tablespoons Italian flat-leaf parsley
Tools
can opener
wire drainer
large heavy bottomed pan with lid
measuring cup
Bamix or Cuisinart Food Processor
garlic press
cutting board
knife
Preparation
The Night Before... Rehydrate Dried Beans
Cover the dried garbanzo beans with water overnight. In the morning, rinse the beans at least 3 times in fresh water, draining each time. This will eliminate gas problems for those who say they can’t eat beans.
Canned Beans
If you use canned garbanzo beans, it's imperative that you drain the liquid off and rinse the beans. This should help with taste and the gas problem... but cooking them from scratch is the best for great taste and eliminating the gas.
Cook the Beans
Put the rinsed beans into a large pan with plenty of water. Bring the beans to a boil, then turn the flame to a simmer and cover the pot. Cook until fork done...I usually start these when I am cooking breakfast and check on them between showering and dressing. If the water gets low, add more so that the beans won’t get scorched on the bottom of the pan.
Drain the Cooking Liquid
Once the beans are soft... no crunchiness, drain all the liquid... this will also eliminate any gas problems. For those who don’t want to soak the beans... or you forgot.... just cook them in the hard state. It will just take twice as long to cook.
Process the Beans
After pouring off the liquid, put the beans into your Cuisinart Food Processor... yes, hot is fine or you can store the beans in the refrigerator and complete the remainder of this recipe later.
In a Cuisinart fitted with the knife blade, add the beans, lemon juice, tahini, garlic, hot sauce or red pepper flakes, tamari and Italian flat-leaf parsley.
Blend this mixture until it is creamy smooth.
Hint: If you’re in a real hurry for a party food, you could use a can or two of garbanzo beans instead of cooking your own. If you don’t own a Cuisinart Food Processor, you could use the Bamix.
Seasoning and Texture Adjustments
Hummus is seasoned to your taste buds. I like to make mine spicy hot and I sometimes leave out the garlic. Experiment with your own taste to see what suits you. Just remember that the tahini is sesame seeds that have been ground...so it is pure fat, use half the amount if you are trying to limit fat calories.
Should the hummus mixture be too thick, you can use water, more lemon juice or more tamari to thin it down... remembering to taste as you go!
Presentation
We use hummus on apples, on whole wheat bread, on pasta dishes, etc. It’s a great party food served with a tray of fresh sliced veggies and fruits. It stores in a plastic container in the refrigerator for about 7 days...that’s if it isn’t gobbled up before then!
An Alternative Hummus Flavor
Hummus du Southwestern
Ingredients
2 cups canned organic red kidney beans
3 to 4 teaspoons lime juice
1 to 2 canned chipotle peppers... these are HOT or 2 fresh jalapeno
2 garlic cloves chopped finely
2 scallions sliced on an angle finely
3 Tablespoons cilantro (some sprigs to garnish)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup vegetable stock or water as needed to thin
Follow the same preparation steps as listed above.
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