I don’t know if I’d even had an endive before I made this recipe for the first time. I’d seen endives at the grocery store and wondered what exactly they were and what they tasted like. They looked pretty healthy. I came across this recipe by Julia Child and decided I needed to give endives a try. This dish eliminates the bitter flavour that endives have, and the lemon and butter combination is very fresh.

Butter Braised Endives

Endives ready for the oven.

Ingredients:

• 12 small, or 8 large endives
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt (to taste)
• 1/2 cup water, plus more as needed
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 4 tbsp butter, sliced into 1/2 tablespoon pieces
• 2 tbsp flat leaf parsley, minced as garnish (optional)

Preparing the endives: Trim the roots (but make sure the leaves stay intact) and remove any brown bits or wilted leaves. Wash under running water.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F/162 degrees C. Arrange the endives in a stove and oven safe baking dish in a single layer. (Or, do as I did and use a non-stick saucepan with lid for the stove parts, and transfer into a baking dish for the oven parts.) Add the salt, butter, lemon juice and water to the dish/saucepan and simmer covered on the stove for about 20 minutes (or until tender).

To ready for the oven, remove the lid and place a piece of parchment paper cut to size on top of the vegetables. Place into the preheated oven (you remembered to do that, right?) and bake for about 2 hours. Baste the endives several times during cooking (I basted every half an hour and turned them after an hour), and add more water to the dish if need be, as it should be about 1/4 inch deep. Taste the liquid in the dish and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

Once the endives are a pale, golden colour, remove them from the oven. Discard the parchment paper, place into a serving dish, and garnish with parsley (if wanted). Serve and enjoy.