Frisée - A Versatile and Distinctive Salad Green (2024)

FAQs

Frisée - A Versatile and Distinctive Salad Green? ›

Frisée is a type of salad green in the chicory family; it is also called curly endive and is made up of long, narrow, curly leaves. It has been used in European countries for some time but it wasn't until the 1990's that frisée gained popularity in America.

If you're looking to liven up your salad garden, try a new green. Growing frisée lettuce is easy enough and it will add frilly texture to both your beds and your salad bowl. Frisée plant uses are typically culinary, but you can also grow these pretty lettuce heads for decoration in beds.

Curly endive, sometimes called frisée or simply chicory, comprises a bushy head of curly greens with leaves of a lacy texture. The slightly bitter flavor is more intense in the leaves that are a darker shade of green. It is often used in salads to add texture as well as flavor.

Frisee is most often eaten raw, in salads or even as a garnish for dishes. It's most well known for its use the famous French bistro salad, salade Lyonnaise, topped with lardons and a poached egg. Or, you can even sauté it!

Storage: Similar to cabbage, you can store frisée in a slightly breathable but mostly airtight container/bag for a couple of weeks in the fridge, removing any outer leaves that have gone wilty.

Because frisée is a leafy green vegetable, it contains very few calories and is packed with beneficial nutrients. A single serving of frisée meets one-third of the daily recommended amounts of folic acid, vitamin A, and vitamin C, and it also contains small amounts of vitamin K and manganese.

For the beginner gardener, loose-leaf, baby-leaf, and mini-head lettuces, as they're most often labeled in seed catalogs, are the easiest varieties to start with — they're simpler, faster to grow, and milder than full-size head lettuce.

Ever wonder why there are so few of those frizzy leaves of pale green that you see in salad mixes? Well, it's because frisee lettuce is a very laborious green that is quite expensive to produce commercially. You'll rarely see it as a sole salad ingredient for that reason.

Frisee's thick sibling, escarole looks like a big head of leafy lettuce, with leaves up to a couple inches in width but that are quite a bit sturdier than a salad green. As with frisee, the outer leaves are heartier than the tender inner ones, so you can get two different dishes from one head.

It is sometimes called curly endive, French endive, or escarole. There are at least 18 varieties. Leaves are eaten raw in salads, boiled, steamed, sauteed, braised, or cooked in soups and stews. The mature plants are sometimes blanched before harvesting to reduce the bitter flavor.

How long does frisée last? ›

The name says it all. Frisée, a member of the chicory family, has a frizzy texture, as well as a deliciously bitter edge. Look for fresh-looking leaves that go from green to white. After being washed (see our tip on how to wash lettuce), frisée will last 5 days in the fridge.

It goes well with cheese and fruits. You may also use pecans or walnuts too. Additionally, the yellow leaves can be served as a salad or as a side for any meat dishes. You may also dress the leaves with any sweet or sour dressings such as maple syrup or vinegar.

As with most leafy greens, frisée contains very few calories and a whole lot of beneficial nutrients. A single serving contains 30% of the daily recommended intake of folic acid, eyesight-boosting vitamin A, and immune-supporter vitamin C. It's also a fantastic source of dietary fibre, manganese, iron, and potassium.

Sow Indoors: 2 months before the last spring frost. Transplant outside after 4 weeks. Sow Outdoors: Sow seed directly outdoors every 2 weeks from spring to early summer and late summer to fall.

There are several different general types of lettuces. In terms of growing speed, the baby lettuce mixes and the leaf lettuces produce harvests soonest after sowing. Loose-leaf lettuces are very useful because you can harvest individual leaves while you're waiting for the heads to reach full size.

Space lettuce plants 6 to 18 inches apart (depending on the variety) in an area that gets an abundance of sun and has fertile, well-drained soil with a pH between 6.0 and 7.0. Improve native soil by mixing in several inches of aged compost or other rich organic matter.