Endive Salad w. Raspberries, Clementines & Goat Cheese

This salad was a lovely starter to the Foods from Chile dinner party I recently hosted. It was delicious: the sweet, juicy fruits provided a fantastic balance to the bitter crunch of the endive leaves. It looked beautiful with all those amazing, bright colors. And it is fancy but also downright easy—the best kind of dish for a dinner party, because you get to actually spend time with your guests! Of course, this salad's also packed with antioxidants, fiber...and did I mention it tastes amazing? Oh, yeah, I did. 

The Chilean raspberries and clementines are actually in season now, since our wintertime is Chile's summer—isn't that convenient? 

Endive Salad with Fruits from Chile

Ingredients

serves 4-6

• 3 heads of Endives, bottoms trimmed and leaves separated
• 3-4 Chilean Clementines, peeled, segments sliced into rough chunks; reserve ½ of one clementine
• ¾ cup Raspberries
• ½ cup Micro Kale
• 3-4 oz. crumbled Capricho de Cabra Goat Cheese
• handful minced parsley
• Chilean Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Sea Salt

Lay the separated endive leaves out on a large serving dish.  

Scatter clementine segments, raspberries and micro kale across the plate and into the endive leaves.  Spread goat cheese crumbles into the endive leaves.  Sprinkle micro kale across the plate.  Drizzle a generous amount of Chile Extra Virgin Olive Oil (seriously, that is some insanely delicious EVOO - everyone was impressed) across the endive leaves.  Squeeze juice of ½ a clementine or more across the plate; I used a whole clementine—I like a lot of acid on my salads.  

Sprinkle with sea salt and garnish with the minced parsley.  Each serving is approximately six endive leaves per person. If you're preparing the salad ahead of time, wait until the last minute to add fruit and drizzle the oil and juice or you might make the leaves soggy.

One of my guests documenting the first course.

Pretty, right?

Check out the other recipes from the meal: Chilled Avocado Lime Soup, Cherry Berry Crisp and Almond-Crusted Salmon!

For more information on Foods from Chile, go to Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Use #FoodsFromChile and #NowInSeason to check out the pictures and posts about this nationwide dinner party event on Twitter.