TABELIAAUTHENTIC RECIPE
Endives BraiséesFrench Braised Belgian Endive
- Total
- 53 min
- Difficulty
- ★★☆☆☆
- Serves
- 4 servings
- Prep 10 min
- Cook 43 min
A French side dish of endives with the bitter core removed, braised under a lid with butter and water, kept pale with lemon juice, and finished with brown butter. Serve alongside roasted or braised meat.
AUTHENTICITY SCORE
Authenticity Score
This is the standard recipe, exactly as it’s made where it comes from — the highest Authenticity Score possible. Substituting ingredients changes this score; the app shows exactly how, ingredient by ingredient.
Ingredients (4 servings)
100Authenticity- Belgian endives8 headsAbout 125g per head, approximately 1kg in total. Choose white heads with yellow leaf tips.
- Lemon juice20 mlFrom half a lemon.
- Salt3 g
- Unsalted butter70 g50g, cut into small pieces, for braising; 20g to finish.
- Water200 ml
Method
Remove damaged leaves and the bitter core, then rinse quickly
- 1 Remove damaged outer leaves from 8 Belgian endives and thinly trim the cut end of each base.
- 2 With the tip of a small utility knife, cut a cone about 1.5cm deep out of the firm central core at the base.
- 3 Rinse briefly under running water and pat dry.
Ready when
Proceed when the cores have been removed but the leaves still hold together.
Caution
Soaking the endives in water increases their bitterness.
Arrange in a single layer with lemon, salt, butter and water, cover and boil
- 1 Arrange the endives in 1 layer in a heavy, shallow, lidded pan of enamel or stainless steel, 28–30cm in diameter.
- 2 Add 20ml lemon juice, 3g salt, 50g unsalted butter cut into small pieces and 200ml water.
- 3 Cover, place over high heat and bring to a boil.
Ready when
Proceed when steam escapes strongly around the lid and the contents are bubbling vigorously.
Cook covered over low heat for 30–35 minutes
- 1 Reduce the heat to very low and cook covered for 30–35 minutes. Turn the endives over 1 time during cooking.
Ready when
Proceed when a skewer slides easily into the base and the endives are translucent and tender while still pale.
Tips
Lemon juice helps prevent the endives from darkening.
Drain, arrange on a plate and finish with brown butter
- 1 Lift out the endives with a wire skimmer, press gently to drain and arrange on a warmed serving plate.
- 2 Melt 20g unsalted butter over medium heat in a small frying pan. As soon as the foam subsides, the butter turns light brown and smells nutty, pour it over the endives.
Ready when
The dish is ready when the pale brown butter is distributed over the endives.
Caution
Heating the butter until black gives it a burnt, bitter taste.
About this dish
In early-20th-century French cooking, a platter of meat could carry a Brussels-style garnish: pale braised Belgian endives alongside potatoes and Brussels sprouts. Curly chicory was also sometimes called endive, so cookbooks took care to distinguish the names.
Indoor hydroponic production emerged in France in the 1970s, reducing labor and increasing output. In Phalempin, northern France, growers who kept the older method began coming together in the 1980s. They replanted lifted roots in soil and covered them with straw to grow the shoots. Their produce obtained the Label Rouge quality designation in 2014.
Soil-grown endives are described as having a short core, a compact, broad shape and a balance of bitterness and sweetness.
Bring the full course home next weekend.
Bring every dish to the table at its best.
Choose the dishes you want to cook, and Chef Authen handles the shopping list and the day-of schedule. The Tabelia app turns everything from starter to main into one coordinated course in your kitchen.
- One shopping listBuilt automatically from your menu and any substitutions, ready to check off.
- One timelineEvery dish’s waiting and cooking time combined into a single schedule.
- Answers beyond the recipeFrom judging the heat to adapting on the fly, Chef Authen answers with concrete criteria, not guesses.