Blanching Endive

Frisee endive 

The endive we grow at the farm is the frisee variety - a leafy green that gets harvested and added to our lettuce mix. It bulks up the mix and adds an interesting bitter taste. Endive can get quite bitter though. A cool weather plant, it does well in the spring and the fall but gets a lot of stress in the hot summer.

One way to avoid the bitterness in the leaves is to blanch the centre of the plant. Gather the outside leaves and wrap them around the centre heart of the plant. Secure them with a rubber band or a soft string. This will protect the centre from getting direct sunlight, keeping the inner leaves from being bitter and also turning them an attractive white colour. This blanching is also done with cauliflower - tying up the outer leaves to keep the head inside a white colour. 

Ready for blanching!

This article over at Vegetable Gardener has some really great information