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This recipe comes from Misunderstood Vegetables: How to Fall in Love with Sunchokes, Rutabaga, Eggplant and More, one of four picks from the first installation of our Climate Cookbooks column.
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RECIPE: Pan-Seared Endive With Balsamic-Roasted Grapes, Feta, and Toasted Pumpkin Seeds
- Yield: Serves 4
Description
This is a fairly straightforward and simple recipe that highlights how the bitterness in chicories can be such a lovely and interesting addition to recipes. If you’re familiar with cocktails, you are already aware of how important bitters can be in balancing a drink. The same can be said for recipes. But everything must be in balance — which is why fat (feta) and sweetness (roasted grapes) have been added in this recipe. Have you ever tried roasted grapes? I remember the first time I did. I was like, why have I never thought of doing this before? They are pleasantly sweet and tart, concentrated down to a plum-fig jam-like depth. Combined with the warm feta? Stop it.
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsps olive oil, plus a splash for the pumpkin seeds
- 1 1/2 lbs Belgian endive, ends trimmed, cut in half lengthwise
- 1 tsp salt, divided, plus more to taste
- 1/4 cup dry white vermouth or white wine
- 3/4 lb red grapes, picked from stems
- 2 Tbsps balsamic vinegar
- 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
- 2 Tbsps toasted pumpkin oil (sub with good olive oil)
- 3 oz sheep’s milk feta
- Flaky salt, for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Add the olive oil to a large skillet and heat over medium-high heat. Add the endive cut side down, in two batches if necessary. Season with 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Cook until deeply caramelized on the cut side, 5 to 7 minutes. Flip the endive over, add the vermouth, and cook for 4 to 5 minutes more, until a knife can be easily inserted. Set aside.
- Meanwhile, place the grapes on the baking sheet. Toss them with the balsamic vinegar and then season them with the other 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Roast until they are blistery and their grapey goodness is all over the parchment paper. In a good way. (A bad way, in case that is your next question, is if they explode all over your oven and then you write me an email.) This should take 10 to 20 minutes or so. Once they come out of the oven, pull the grapes with their parchment paper off the pan. You’ll need to use this sheet pan again.
- Toss the pumpkin seeds onto the baking sheet with a splash of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Mix up and toast them in the hot oven, watching them very carefully, until they puff and brown a bit, 4 to 5 minutes. (Alternatively, you can toast them in a skillet on the stove.) Set them aside for use as a garnish.
- Plate the endive, cut side up. Scatter the grapes on and around the endive. Drizzle the pumpkin oil on everything, then scatter the feta over the top. Add a bit of flaky salt, if you’d like. Finally, and with great drama, let the pumpkin seeds fly.
Notes
- Toasted pumpkin seed oil can be found in specialty markets or online.
Excerpted from Misunderstood Vegetables: How to Fall in Love with Sunchokes, Rutabaga, Eggplant and More. Text copyright (c) 2024 by Becky Selengut. Photography copyright (c) Clare Barboza. Used with permission of the publisher, The Countryman Press, a division of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.
