Endive Salad with Plantain Chips

Endive Salad with Plantain Chips – Easy Appetizers

A little trivia here- endive is popularly believed to be European due to its French name but the plant’s actual origin is traced back to Indonesia or Africa. Health benefits of endive (also known as Belgian Endive) include nutrients that fight cancer and diabetes, helps with weight loss and even fights acne. The other main ingredients in this easy appetizer are antioxidant-rich avocados and naturally sweet plantains. I love guacamole; what better dish than something that tastes diabolically naughty yet is actually good for you?! However, knowing it’s high calorie content (even though it’s good-for-you fats, still not a good idea to eat a huge bowl every day), I wanted to pair guacamole with a low cal and healthy veggie.

Endive have a perfect boat shape to house the creamy guacamole and with its own set of health benefits, this is a win win. Add low-sugar and high in vitamins plantains, and we’ve got a win win win dish here. This  appetizer is great for parties as it’s easy to eat as finger food. Another serving suggestion (as opposed to the pictures here) is to dice the plantains into tiny cubes like the tomatoes, and sprinkle on top. In this manner, the Endive becomes an easy to hold vessel for all the other ingredients and a no mess situation for cocktail parties.

Serves 4

Ingredients
1 tablespoon butter
1 large plantain, sliced on the diagonal ~ 1/2 inch thick
8 Endive leaves (washed and drained)
16 tablespoons Guacamole (you can use store-bought if you prefer)
1/2 large tomato, diced into tiny cubes
Chopped cilantro for garnish

Method

Heat the butter on medium high heat in a large skillet. Pan-fry the plantain slices until golden brown, approximately 1 1/2 minutes on each side. Arrange plantains on serving plate, leaving room for the Endive.

Arrange Endive on the serving plate. I like to arrange one Endive, one plantain and so on. Alternatively, you can serve 2 Endive and 2 plantain slices on small plates for individual servings.

Spoon 2 tablespoons of Guacamole onto each Endive. Garnish with the chopped tomato and chopped cilantro. Repeat with all the Endive.

Serve immediately while plantain slices are still warm.