Easy endive appetizer with blue cheese, pecans, and cranberries

Easy and quick endive appetizer with blue cheese, pecans, and cranberries is a delicious and elegant appetizer for a weeknight dinner or a big party. It takes only minutes to make and can be prepared in advance. Healthy and full of complex flavour.

This post was first published on Imagelicious on January 11, 2016

I was never a fan of big hearty salads. The ones that have lettuce, chicken, beans, quinoa, sun-dried tomatoes, cucumbers, feta, and nuts. Actually, now that I read these ingredients, that salad sounds pretty good.

Well, I ate those salads, but they were never my favourites. My heart always had affinity for a simple combination of mixed greens with salty and pungent blue cheese, crunchy and buttery pecans, and chewy and sweet cranberries. So simple, so light, so elegant.

This is my favourite salad, or, shall I say, it was my favourite salad. When I could actually eat salads.

As of middle of 2014 I can’t have greens, along with asparagus, bok choi, and a few other vegetables and grains. Food intolerance. After months of pills, doctors appointments, and tests, in the end I figured it out on my own – benign watery lettuce was the culprit.

I went to see my doctor with the discovery. He said I was getting older. My husband said I should find a new doctor.

Now, years later I was able to reintroduce some of those foods into my diet but at a very limited capacity. I only eat asparagus at home and I avoid all lettuces and high fibre greens when eating out.

And yet, I still love the combination of cheese, nuts, and fruit. I use it in savoury breads, such as Blue Cheese, Pecans and Date Bread, in appetizers, and just as a cheese platter.

Blue cheese is my favourite to eat with pecans and cranberries, but I use creamy goat cheese, crumbly old Parmeggiano Regiano, or even feta too. For nuts I strongly prefer pecans, but walnuts, almonds, or pine nuts would work well.

As for the sweetness, dried cranberries are easy, I always have them in my pantry, but in the fall I use juicy pears or crisp apples; in the summer I use jammy strawberries; and on occasion I use caramel dates. As long as there’s the perfect balance of salty cheese, nuts, and something sweet I’ll be happy.

How to make endive appetizer with blue cheese, pecans, and cranberries

I can’t have lettuce anymore, but I can have endive, so I make a bite-sized version of my favourite salad – endive appetizer with blue cheese, pecans, and cranberries.

• Chop nuts
• Chop cranberries
• Crumble blue cheese
• Mix chopped nuts, chopped cranberries, and crumbled blue cheese
• Fill endive boats with the mixture

It’s a great endive appetizer, it is easy to prepare and easy to eat without a plate, which makes it perfect for a party. It tastes delicious and looks impressive.

Prep tip to making endive appetizer

You can chop pecans and cranberries a few days in advance and store in airtight containers. You can also crumble the blue cheese in store in an airtight container in the fridge for a few days. This will save time on the day of the party as you would only need to assemble the endive appetizer boats.

You can read 12 Tips for Easy and Stress-free Entertaining for more ideas on how to make entertaining as easy and as stress-free as possible.

More easy appetizer recipes:

• Pecan and Boursin stuffed Dates
• Cheese and Nuts Pinwheels
• Mushroom Crostini 3 Ways

More endive appetizers from my blogger friends:

• Belgian apple and endive salad from Tricia of Rhubarbarians
• Endive boats with scallops and pineapple salsa from Julie of Hostess at Heart

Variations for endive appetizer recipe

• Blue cheese
  • I like using blue cheese because it pairs great with endive
  • You can use goat cheese
  • Try Boursin cheese
  • Salty crumbly feta is great also
  • You can even try shaved parmesan, although the texture will be different and not creamy
• Pecans
  • I love pecans, they are buttery and crunchy
  • You can use walnuts instead
  • Also try pine nuts, almonds, hazelnuts
• Dried cranberries
  • I like the slight tartness of the cranberries
  • You can use raisins
  • You can use chopped dates
  • You can use any dried fruit actually

If you don’t believe that this endive appetizer with blue cheese, pecans, and cranberries appetizer is really easy to make, then watch the video. 

Note: I shot the footage for the video three years ago but re-edited it now, so it’s a little bit different from my usual videos.

Print Recipe

Endive with blue cheese, pecans, and cranberries

Easy and quick endive with blue cheese, pecans, and cranberries is a delicious and elegant appetizer for a weeknight dinner or a big party. It takes only minutes to make and can be prepared in advance. Healthy and full of complex flavour | Imagelicious

Prep Time10 mins

Total Time10 mins

Course: Appetizer

Cuisine: American

Keyword: appetizer, blue cheese, endive

Servings: 10 appetizers

Calories: 31kcal

Ingredients

• 1 Endive
• 2 tablespoons pecans (~ 15 g)
• 1 tablespoon dried cranberries (~ 7 g)
• 2 tablespoons blue cheese (~ 25 g)

Instructions

• Roughly chop the pecans.
• Chop the dried cranberries to about the same size as pecans,
• In a small bowl combine chopped pecans, cranberries, and blue cheese. Mix with a fork until well incorporated.
• Separate the endive into individual leaves.
• Place a spoonful of blue cheese mixture into each leaf and serve.

Video

Nutrition

Calories: 31kcal | Carbohydrates: 3g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 1mg | Sodium: 29mg | Potassium: 153mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 19.7% | Vitamin C: 3.5% | Calcium: 3.2% | Iron: 2.4%