{{Short description|Lettuce-like vegetable or salad green}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}} thumb
'''Belgian endive''' (''Cichorium intybus),'' also known as {{Lang|nl|witloof}} ("white leaf") chicory or ''chicon'', is a lettuce-like vegetable or salad green.<ref name="Yeoman-2001">{{Cite web |last=Yeoman |first=Andrew |date=1 March 2001 |title=Belgian Endives |url=https://www.bcliving.ca/belgian-endives |access-date=21 September 2022 |website=BCLiving}}</ref><ref name="Kearney-2020">{{Cite web |last=Kearney |first=Breandán |date=20 October 2020 |title=The Bitter Fight to Save Belgian Endive from Extinction |url=https://www.belgiansmaak.com/belgian-endive-witloof/ |access-date=18 March 2025 |website=Belgian Smaak |language=en-US}}</ref> Belgian endive was developed in Belgium in the 1850s and is nicknamed "white gold" in that country.<ref name="The Food Museum">{{cite web |title=Belgian endive- Cichorium intybus |url=http://www.foodmuseum.com/endive.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050729081033/http://www.foodmuseum.com/endive.html |archive-date=29 July 2005 |publisher=The Food Museum}}</ref><ref name="specialtyproduce.com">{{Cite web |title=Belgian Endive |url=https://specialtyproduce.com/produce/Belgian_Endive_516.php#:~:text=Belgian%20endive%20is%20available%20year,season%20in%20the%20winter%20months. |access-date=18 March 2025 |website=specialtyproduce.com |language=en}}</ref> In 2021 Brussels added it to the region's Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage.<ref name="Brussels Times-2021">{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=30 March 2021 |title='Part of our history': Belgian endives are now Brussels heritage |url=https://www.brusselstimes.com/162440/part-of-our-history-belgian-endives-are-now-brussels-heritage-pascal-smet-schaerbeek-evere-francois-breziers-chips-beer-speculoos |access-date=18 March 2025 |website=Brussels Times |language=en}}</ref>
== Description and culinary use == It has a small compact elongated head of cream-colored leaves.<ref name="The Food Museum" /> The tender leaves are slightly bitter; the whiter the leaf, the less bitter the taste. The smooth, creamy white leaves may be served cooked or raw. The highest quality Belgian endives have a small, soft heart, which are typically found in the traditionally-grown vegetables known as ''grondwitloof''.<ref name="Kearney-2020" />
When cooked, the bitterness mellows to a nutty flavor.<ref name="Kearney-2020" /> The vegetable can be cooked whole, cut up, or separated into leaves. It can be stuffed, baked, braised, roasted, or cooked in a sauce.<ref name="specialtyproduce.com" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Delany |first=Alex |date=2018-01-23 |title=Endive Is a Chip and a Salad Green at the Same Damn Time |url=https://www.bonappetit.com/story/belgian-endive?srsltid=AfmBOoruD7mK7G5QMffS7_24mmfACSHji8X9Zsft4mr6Em9-eidWosj0 |access-date=2025-03-18 |website=Bon Appétit |language=en-US}}</ref> thumb|Endive au jambon In the US, the Belgian endive is typically served raw in salads or used to create appetizer dishes of stuffed individual leaves and is considered a gourmet produce item. In Europe, it is typically served as a roasted or baked whole vegetable in a sauce, such as a gratin, and is considered an important winter vegetable.<ref name="specialtyproduce.com" /><ref name="Visit the California Delta-2025">{{Cite web |date=15 March 2025 |title=Endive |url=https://visitcadelta.com/stories/delta-food-features/endive/ |access-date=18 March 2025 |website=Visit the California Delta |language=en-US}}</ref> A well-known cooked dish is {{Interlanguage link|endive au jambon|fr}}, endive wrapped in ham and baked in mornay sauce.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Davidson |first=Alan |author-link=Alan Davidson (food writer) |title=The Oxford Companion to Food |pages=173}}</ref>
The roots of the wild plant are sometimes roasted, ground, and brewed into a beverage called chicory that is sometimes used as a substitute for or an extender to coffee.<ref name="The Food Museum" />
== Growing == The plant is a biennial which had been primarily grown for the value of its first-season root in producing the beverage chicory. It had not been exploited for its second season until the development of the second-year sprout as a vegetable in Belgium.<ref name="Bradshaw-2021" />
According to one legend, the technique for growing blanched endives was accidentally discovered in the mid-1800s when a chicory farmer named Jan Lammers returned from military duty and discovered the roots he had stored had sprouted and the sprouts were good to eat.<ref name="The Food Museum" /><ref name="specialtyproduce.com" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Crum |first=Peggy |date=June 2013 |title=Belgian endive |url=https://health4u.msu.edu/files/recipes/88/newsletter/original/JUN_RFH_Newsletter.pdf |website=Michigan State University}}</ref> Another version of the story is that a botanist named François (or perhaps Frans) Breziers, a chief gardener at the Brussels Botanical Garden, developed the Belgian endive in an equally happy accident.<ref name="Visit the California Delta-2025" /><ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=29 March 2021 |title=The "chicon" is now on the Brussels list of intangible cultural heritage |url=https://brussels-express.eu/the-belgian-endive-or-chicon-is-now-on-the-list-of-brussels-intangible-cultural-heritage/ |access-date=18 March 2025 |website=Brussels Express |language=fr-FR}}</ref><ref name="Kearney-2020" /> In Belgium the vegetable is called witloof or chicon and is nicknamed "white gold".<ref name="specialtyproduce.com" /><ref name="Brussels Times-2021" />
As traditionally grown, they are available from December to April in temperate climates, making them unusual.<ref name="Yeoman-2001" /> Commercially grown Belgian endive are available year-around.<ref name="specialtyproduce.com" /><ref name="Visit the California Delta-2025" />
The plant has a taproot, so it must be started where it will be grown. For its first year, it is field-grown. It is seeded in the spring in northern temperate climates.<ref name="Yeoman-2001" />
In commercial growing, at the end of the first growing season, the plant is harvested, the leaves are removed, and the root is stored in cold conditions, mimicking an overwintering.<ref name="Visit the California Delta-2025" /> The root is then allowed to re-sprout indoors in the absence of sunlight, which prevents the leaves from turning green and opening up.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Belgian Endive: A Labor of Love |url=https://www.organicgrown.com/blog/belgian-endive-a-labor-of-love#:~:text=A%20chicory%20family%20member,%20organic,crunch%20and%20slightly%20bitter%20flavor. |access-date=18 March 2025 |website=Organically Grown Company |language=en-US}}</ref> This hydroponics method was developed in the 1970s and produces an endive called ''hydrowitloof''.<ref name="Kearney-2020" />
In traditional cultivation, the leaves are cut off at the end of the first growing season and the roots are left in the ground covered with layers of straw topped with sheets of metal or thick fabric to block the sunlight to overwinter.<ref name="Kearney-2020" /><ref name="Yeoman-2001" /> The traditional method produces an endive called ''grondwitloof'' (soil Belgian endive) which are typically higher quality.<ref name="Kearney-2020" /> {{Gallery | title = Belgian endive from farm to plate | align = | footer = | style = | state = | height = | width = | perrow = | mode = | whitebg = | noborder = | captionstyle = | File:Chicoree.jpg |A field of first-season Belgian endive| | class1= | alt1= | File:Chicorée (INRA Versailles)-cliche Jean Weber (22601012055).jpg | A first-season plant | class2= | alt2= |File:Witlof wortels kuil.jpg |Root with leaves removed, ready to be packed into a growing container | File:Chicorée Fabrik in Gelsdorf 06.jpg | Roots packed into growing container for cold storage, then sprouting | File:Chicorée Fabrik in Gelsdorf 05.jpg | Second-year Belgian endive in a growing facility | File:Chicorée Fabrik in Gelsdorf 01.jpg | Sprouted Belgian endive | class3= | alt3= | File:Witlof en wortel.jpg | Belgian endive, still with root | class5= | alt5= |File:Endives au marché.jpg | Belgian endive displayed at a market | | | File:Chicory Green (3047077636).jpg | Belgian endive leaves |File:Entrée à base d'endives.jpg |Belgian endive leaves stuffed with shrimp and served as an appetizer }}
== Industry == Belgium's Praktijkpunt Landbouw Vlaams-Brabant (Practical Centre for Agriculture in Flemish Brabant), formerly the Nationale Proeftuin Voor Witloof (National Testing Garden for Belgian Endive), is in Herent.<ref name="Kearney-2020" />
In the 1970s, the endive was the most-grown vegetable in Belgium and accounted for a quarter of vegetables grown in the country.<ref name="Kearney-2020" /> Producers of hydrowitloof, able to produce year around, pushed out producers of grondwitloof, but eventually were themselves pushed out by cheaper producers in other countries.<ref name="Kearney-2020" /> By the 2010, commercial producers of both types of Belgian endive were leaving the industry.<ref name="Kearney-2020" /> Brussels Grondwitloof was awarded a European Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) designation.<ref name="Kearney-2020" />
As of 2021, production of the vegetable in Belgium is "mostly by amateurs" rather than as a commercial crop; the availability of land and the costs of input, including electricity to create the cold storage necessary for production, had harmed the domestic industry.<ref name="Bradshaw-2021">{{Cite web |last=Bradshaw |first=Lisa |date=29 March 2021 |title=Endive growers added to Brussels register of cultural heritage |url=https://www.thebulletin.be/endive-growers-added-brussels-register-cultural-heritage |access-date=18 March 2025 |website=The Bulletin |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Van der Merwe |first=Danica |date=13 October 2022 |title=Energy crisis threatens famed Belgian endives in Wallonia |url=https://www.brusselstimes.com/305109/energy-crisis-threatening-famous-belgian-endives-in-wallonia |access-date=18 March 2025 |website=Brussels Times |language=en}}</ref>
== See also ==
== References == {{Reflist}}
Category:Vegetables Category:Belgian inventions Category:Crops originating from Europe Category:Cichorieae Category:Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Brussels