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Do you love your salad greens? Do you like pops of pungency in your spring mix? If so, chicories are the salad green for you! Let’s learn about all the different types of chicory at the farmers market, from the super seasonal puntarelle to the year-round radicchio.
Wait, what are chicory greens? Isn’t that just lettuce?
While the chicories look a lot like lettuce, they are different plants! Lettuce is actually a part of the daisy family, whereas chicories belong to their own branch. Chicories tend to have a more assertive, and sometimes bitter, flavor that is not present in most lettuces. If you’ve ever mistakenly bought a head of radicchio thinking it was a cute, small red cabbage, you know exactly what I’m talking about here!
When are chicories in season at the farmers market?
Chicories are cooler weather crops, and are best in late winter through early spring, and then again in the fall. Depending on your location, however, you might see them year round at your farmers market!
How do you pick out the best chicory greens?
In general, you’ll want to look for firm, crisp leaves. Avoid any chicories with brown or mushy spots, as these are signs of spoilage.
For the headed chicories, such as Belgian endive and radicchio, ensure that the leaves are tightly packed and firm. For the looser leafed chicories, like escarole and frisee, the tightly packed leaves are not as relevant.
How do you store chicories at home?
Store your chicory greens in the crisper (vegetable) drawer of your refrigerator, the same way you would store lettuce. They should be kept dry to prevent premature spoilage.
Keep a dry paper towel in the bag with any loose leafed chicories to help control the humidity surrounding them. Swap out the paper towel when it feels wet.
The 10 Types of Chicory Greens at the Farmers Market
Belgian Endive
Belgian endive is characterized by small heads of tightly packed, spear shaped, yellow leaves. They are mildly bitter, with an excellent crunch.
Belgian endive leaves form perfect little cups for stuffing. In the early spring months, when oranges are still in season, these stuffed endive spears are the perfect appetizer for a dinner party. In the fall, however, stuff the endive with pear and blue cheese for a seasonal alternative. Yum!
You can also cook Belgian endive. My favorite way to do this is to braise the heads of endive, where the leaves will become soft and buttery. A perfect side dish for roasted chicken or pork tenderloin.
Red Belgian Endive
While Red Belgian Endive looks just like regular Belgian Endive with a different color, they’re actually not that closely related. Instead, Red Belgian Endive is a version of radicchio, where the heads are bred to look like the the same long spears as regular Belgian Endive. However, whether red or yellow, these endives can be used interchangeably.
Sugarloaf Chicory
Sugarloaf chicory is an heirloom variety of escarole. While it looks like a head of romaine lettuce, it has a more pronounced bitter flavor than the mild lettuces. However, this is the mildest of the chicories, so if you’re new to the bitter flavors of escarole and radicchio, I suggest looking for this variety. Sugarloaf chicory may also be seen as “Pan di Zucchero,” its Italian name, at the farmers market.
Sugarloaf chicory is excellent when grilled; the leaves are sturdy enough to withstand the high temperatures, and this helps to tame the mild bitter notes. Lopez Island Kitchen Gardens has a guide on how to grill these chicory greens.
Escarole (Endive)
My family may have been Sunnyvale’s #1 escarole buyer. This was my pet rabbit’s favorite food, other than carrot tops. Sometimes we would even have to explain to the cashiers what escarole even was! I hope Inky was pleased with the efforts we went through to ensure he had the best food available.
Escarole, sometimes known as just endive, has a looser head than Belgian endive, with large flattish leaves with ruffled edges. It has a bitter flavor that mellows when cooked.
My favorite way to enjoy escarole is when it is added into soups! These leaves don’t turn slimy when cooked, so they are a wonderful addition to white bean soups to balance out the creamy and salty flavors. This combination is especially popular in Italian cooking.
Another option is to try this one-pan meal from Martha Stewart. The escarole will balance out the salty chicken and potatoes beautifully.
Frisee (Curly Endive)
Frisee, or curly endive, has an extremely frizzy and crunchy texture. While it has a similar flavor to escarole, the real star here is the crazy texture!
While frisee can certainly stand up to cooking like most chicories, I prefer eating frisee raw. Once cooked, frisee looses that insanely prickly, crunchy texture that provides such a great contrast to other salad greens. Bon Appetit’s Frisee Salad recipe is amongst my favorites; a perfect salad for any time of the day (including breakfast).
Radicchio di Treviso
This is one of the many different varieties of radicchio. Radicchio di Treviso has long, thin leaves that look almost like a tropical flower. Sometimes you’ll see it with fuller leaves and more of a conical shape, but I like this flowery version best.
Saltiness is one of the best ways to counteract the bitter flavor of Radicchio di Treviso. This rich risotto from La Cucina Italiana is perfectly balanced by the addition of some roasted radicchio.
Radicchio di Chioggia
Radicchio di Chioggia is probably the most common radicchio variety you’ll see at the farmers market and at the grocery store. While it looks like a small, cute, red cabbage, it has a much more assertive, bitter flavor. It can be quite a shock if you’re not expecting it.
However, I have finally found a way to tame the extreme bitterness of radicchio so that it doesn’t take over the entire dish. After you cut the radicchio, soak it in cold water. The compounds responsible for the bitter flavor are water soluble, and a large proportion of them can be washed away.
After the water bath, your radicchio is ready to be tossed into many salads. This spring, try combining radicchio and fennel to make this simple side salad. Or in the fall, combine the radicchio with sweet apples and parmesan crisps for a perfectly balanced salad.
Radicchio de Castelfranco
In contrast to other varieties of radicchio, Radicchio di Castelfranco has a totally different look. First, it isn’t the deep burgundy purple color of most radicchios. Instead, it has light yellow green leaves covered in purple specs, leading this type of radicchio to sometimes be called “variegated radicchio.” Second, it has a looser head than most other radicchios. But one thing it has in common? It still has the same bitter crunch as all the chicories do.
The unique coloring of Radicchio di Castelfranco adds visual interest to salads. Use the same cold water bath trick as Radicchio di Chioggia to reduce the bitterness before adding this radicchio to your salads.
Puntarelle
Puntarelle is one of the most alien-looking greens I have ever seen at the farmers market. Honestly, it looks like a small bunch of asparagus, surrounded by dandelion greens. But don’t dig into some puntarelle thinking it tastes like asparagus! If anything, it is amongst the most bitter of the chicories and requires some prep work to make it palatable. Be sure to soak it in a cold water bath if eating it raw, and pair it with ultra-salty foods, like capers and parmesan cheese.
Tame this wild-looking vegetable in this classic Italian dish, Puntarelle alla Romana. Pairing the puntarelle with pungent and salty anchovies and capers helps balance the salad’s flavor. Puntarelle has a juicy crunch that makes for a tantalizing salad base.
Craving a pasta night? Try this pasta dish combining puntarelle with sharp pecorino cheese and salty guanciale (pork cheek) from The Taste Edit. The key to enjoying this seasonal vegetable is smart pairings, and this pasta does it beautifully.
Dandelion Greens
Okay, okay, dandelion greens aren’t exactly in the same family as other chicories, but it is related and has a very similar flavor profile. The dandelion greens you see at the farmers market are not the same as the weeds that grow in your front yard: they’re much larger.
Sauté your dandelion greens with garlic for a flavorful side dish this spring. Dandelion greens can stand up to other powerful flavors, so don’t go easy on the garlic.
White beans are another great match for the strong flavor of dandelion greens. This white bean, sausage, and dandelion greens recipe from Chasing the Seasons is a perfectly balanced dish that works equally well as a main or a side dish.
