Hello Hive friends
Recently my partner and I, quit our jobs to focus on helping his parents. There are other reasons why we left that I won't mention.
His parents have many health problems.
They can't get their groceries or move around much.Therefore we are going back and forth across town to get them groceries, medication, take out the garbage, clean, do laundry, and whatever they need.
Between the two of them, there have been two heart attacks, kidney failure, high blood pressure, cancer survival, among many things.
They ordered their groceries and what they wanted made it difficult for us to purchase, but we did.
They wanted eggs, bacon, white sugar, brie cheese, cola, and the most processed foods void of nutrition. She also deep fries the cheese after breading.
They have been a living example of "you are what you eat". They believe they're healthy because they're alive still. We will try to learn from their ways. Don't get me wrong. We do eat things that are not good for us by our standards, but we are aware of it. There is no denial.
When Marc and I saw some curly endive in a small grocery store, for a great price, we knew we had to purchase it. It was big and beautiful.
Many people, don't eat this. which is the reason why it's not sold in regular large super markets.
It is much tougher than lettuce, and quite bitter compared to most lettuces. For us, the bitterness is welcoming. Also the fibrous texture feels more filling than regular lettuce.
I would never eat this plain with nothing added. It wouldn't appeal to me much.
To make it more fun and enjoyable, I have added fruit and nuts. This combats any bitterness that is found in endive.
This particular curly endive came fully grown and not packaged like baby endive, which is milder.
Because of this, it must be well washed.
The best way to clean this, is to submerge the leaves in water and a splash of vinegar. It's not delicate, so it can take the beating of being swished around, to get rid of any sand.
I let it drain in a colander to get the water out. This takes a lot of time and shaking.
Believe it or not, I have never owned a salad spinner. I don't know why.
While the lettuce dripped, I gathered the fruits that I thought would be a nice accompaniment.
Pears and grapes are often used in salads. Apples and grapes are good as well, but I chose pears.
These pears were not juicy, so it added a crunchy texture to the salad. They were sweet though.
I added a little lemon juice to them to keep them from browning.
The grapes were super sweet and juicy. I thought they would be better cut in half. I'm sure most people that put grapes in their salad, would cut them in half.
Of course any nuts would be good in this salad, but for me toasted walnuts made the most sense.
I guess this is a little bit like a Waldorf salad except that I didn't use a mayo based dressing or apples.
Toasting the walnuts in a hot pan, gives it a boost of flavour. Of course raw walnuts would be much more beneficial for health. I chose a full on, fun salad.
I could have put them in the oven for a while. The pan uses less electricity, plus I could watch them roast having control by stirring.
To add even more texture and variety I added some cabbage, onion, radish and carrot.
When the endive was properly drained, I chopped it into bite size pieces.
Curly endive salad
500g endive
250g grapes
250g pears
100g walnuts
100g onion
80g carrot
100g cabbage
50g radish
The endive and other ingredients were mixed as a base.
All but the fruit and nuts were left to add at the end.
I kept the fruits separate so they didn't make the salad too wet during storage. I also wanted to control how much I added. The amounts I chose of everything were random, but I've given the amounts of each item that I prepped to have on hand.
It was time to decide on a vinaigrette. Creamy or not. I chose not.
I wanted a sweet and tangy vinaigrette. This would use up some citrus, that I had quite a bit of. I get most of it at a local store, that has overpriced items. As a result they have many marked down items that are still really good.
Vinaigrette
20g lemon juice
80 orange juice
100g white balsamic
100g oil (I used a mild olive oil)
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp onion powder
10g garlic
After grating the garlic, I simply whisked all of the ingredients together.
There was a bit of adjustment with seasoning to suit my liking.
We only mixed a portion of the salad with dressing, as there was an abundance left for the next day.
It's normal to crave only carbohydrates, proteins, Heavier foods, in the Northern winter climates. We tend to overlook, raw fruits and vegetables, in times with limited sunlight. I figure, if we eat this, and still want those other things later, we can have it after. Yes this is breakfast for us sometimes. I really like starting the day like this.
Have a great day everyone!
Photos taken with a Nikon D7500