Endive-beet salad

Winter can be a difficult season for produce. In summer, fresh fruits and salads are everywhere - our fig tree is bursting with fruit, our neighbor never fails to drop by with a crate of beefsteak tomatoes, cucumber salads are on every menu - and let's face it, it's so hot here in summer that you don't really want to eat anything else. But in winter, things are less obvious. In the grocery store, you can still find summer vegetables, but they're rock-hard and strangely discolored, flown in from improbable locations around the globe. You wake up one day in February thinking, "For the last four months, everything I've eaten has been doused in cream or butter sauce, and I don't even remember the last time I ate a salad."

Enter the endive. Their peak season runs from November to April, so they're ideal from breaking you out of your winter salad funk. Endives are surprisingly versatile for what is essentially just a head of lettuce; they can be eaten raw in any number of salads, garnished with seafood or cheese for elegant hors d'oeuvres, baked in gratins, or simply sautéed.

Here, I pair the slightly bitter endive with beets and a dijon vinaigrette, which I find to be a perfect combination. I'll post later with another endive salad idea if you're not a fan of beets, but I highly suggest you try this salad before making any judgments. It's the perfect opener for any winter meal.

Endive-beet salad

serves 4

4 endives

4 beets

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

8 tablespoons olive oil

1-2 teaspoons dijon mustard

salt and pepper

1. In a large bowl, whisk together mustard and vinegar until smooth. Add olive oil gradually and continue whisking. Once the dressing is well mixed, taste and adjust proportions of vinegar, oil and mustard. Add salt and pepper to taste.
2. Cut the beets into small cubes. Add them to the dressing and set aside to marinate.
3. Rinse the endives thoroughly. Cut off the hard bottoms of each head; set aside a few outside leaves for a garnish. Cut the remaining endives in half, then in small rounds. Discard any leaves that seem wilted or tough.
4. Just before serving, arrange endive leaf garnishes on individual salad plates and top with chopped endive. Spoon beets and sauce over each salad.

Feel free to play with the salad dressing proportions; in general, you should have a 1:4 ratio of vinegar to oil. And be careful when adding mustard; a little goes a long way. Bon appetit!