I always love a big hearty salad for lunch. This amazing recipe for chicory salad will blow you away. Slightly bitter, crisp chicory leaves, fragrant fresh herbs, crunchy radishes and kohlrabi, aromatic fennel and a stunner homemade anchovy dressing. If you are a fan of the real steakhouse style Caesar salad with bold dressing full of anchovies and garlic you will absolutely love this salad.
Chicories take center stage in this salad. They are bitter leaves with a more strong bite than tender and sweet lettuce. But this is exactly what we are looking for. Not only do they add beautiful red color to the salad, they are also zesty and pair wonderfully with assertive dominant dressing. They can really stand up to it.
Chicories belong to the dandelion family and have been cultivated for the culinary uses all over Europe. For the salad you can use any varieties that are available at your local grocery stores such as treviso, puntarelle, radicchio, escarole, and endive.
Radicchio usually has variegated red or red and green leaves. It has a bitter and spicy taste. Endive has smooth, creamy white leaves. The tender leaves are slightly bitter, the whiter the leaf, the less bitter the taste.
The made from scratch dressing packs a super powerful flavor punch combining dominant ingredients like anchovies, garlic, vinegar and horseradish. The dressing is to die for. Anchovies really aiding in the amazing umami flavor. The recipe makes a hearty salad that would feed 4-6 people. Enjoy!
