PinFacebookTweetEmailShare Jump to RecipeEndives au gratin is a creamy casserole consisting of crisp Belgian endives, wrapped in ham and covered in a creamy white sauce with Gruyere cheese.Endive is a lettuce in the chicory family that is crisp with nutty flavors when baked.Fun little fact about me: I have a Master’s degree in agronomy.

Specifically, I studied lettuce production in the Salinas Valley (in California).If that sounds boring to you, I can assure you that you haven’t driven down the road and seen alternating rows of bright green, vibrant purple, and dark green lettuce growing together side-by-side in neat little rows.The mix of salad in your salad bag is literally planted as a mix–as the rows are harvested next to each other, they are washed, mixed and bagged together.

It’s a plant rainbow in the field, as often a single row of green lettuce is planted next to a single row of purple oak leaf lettuce or radicchio, followed by a light green butter lettuce plant, repeat for acres and acres until the sun sets in the Pacific Ocean.I wish I could share a video with you of what it looks like when you drive 55mph and the colorful rows appear to be dancing.What are endives? However, endives are not lettuce! You find them in the same section of the grocery store as lettuce, but they are grown very differently.

Endives are grown much like mushrooms: in the dark and in very cool temperatures, nowhere near the sunny lettuce fields kissed my ocean breeze

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