Chef Joost
Bietensalade (Dutch Beetroot Salad)
Cold beetroot, tart apple, walnuts, and a crumble of salty cheese: the Dutch buffet dish that proves winter storage food can arrive wearing its brightest coat.
Culinary Explorer
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Witlofsalade
Created by
Witlof means white leaf, and this winter salad proves the Dutch can make freshness from darkness: crisp bitter endive, tart apple, walnuts, and mustard.
Salads
Dutch
Weeknight
Dinner Party
Budget Friendly
15 min
Active Time
0 min cook•15 min total
Yield4 servings
Witlof is the vegetable that learned to grow without light. In winter, when the garden has gone quiet and the market stalls look stern, these pale torpedoes arrive wrapped tight as letters, crisp, bitter, and clean. The name already tells you: witlof, white leaf. Not green. Not sun-fed. White, because the root was forced in darkness, and somehow that sounds like a Dutch moral lesson until you eat it.
But let me tell you a secret. This is not the sad little side salad people make when they think dinner requires something raw. Witlofsalade is the Dutch winter's answer to freshness: bitterness sharpened with apple, softened with walnut, and pulled together by mustard, honey, and vinegar. A dish without its story is half a meal, and this one carries a fine trick of northern kitchens, making brightness when the season refuses to provide it.
The cooking, for obvious reasons, is no cooking at all. Your work is judgement. Cut away the hard cone at the base, because that is where the bitterness shouts. Slice the leaves just before dressing, because witlof browns when it sulks. Then balance it as a Dutch cook would: sweet, sharp, fat, salt. Hou het altijd simpel, always keep it simple, and let the salad crunch like winter light on the table.
Witlof, called witloof in Flemish and chicon in French-speaking Belgium, was developed around Brussels in the nineteenth century by forcing chicory roots in darkness so they produced pale, tight heads instead of green leaves. The method spread north into the Netherlands, where witlof became a reliable winter vegetable precisely because it could be stored as a root and forced when fresh garden greens were scarce. Raw witlofsalade is a twentieth-century home-kitchen expression of that crop: crisp, inexpensive, and commonly balanced with apple, nuts, or a mustard dressing to tame the vegetable's natural bitterness.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
witlof (Belgian endive)
Quantity
4 heads
trimmed and thinly sliced
crisp tart apple
Quantity
1
cored and thinly sliced
walnuts
Quantity
60g
roughly chopped
neutral oil or walnut oil
Quantity
2 tablespoons
apple cider vinegar
Quantity
1 tablespoon
Dutch mustard or Dijon mustard
Quantity
1 teaspoon
honey
Quantity
1 teaspoon
plain yogurt or mayonnaise
Quantity
2 tablespoons
chives
Quantity
1 tablespoon
finely chopped
salt and black pepper
Quantity
to taste
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| witlof (Belgian endive)trimmed and thinly sliced | 4 heads |
| crisp tart applecored and thinly sliced | 1 |
| walnutsroughly chopped | 60g |
| neutral oil or walnut oil | 2 tablespoons |
| apple cider vinegar | 1 tablespoon |
| Dutch mustard or Dijon mustard | 1 teaspoon |
| honey | 1 teaspoon |
| plain yogurt or mayonnaise | 2 tablespoons |
| chivesfinely chopped | 1 tablespoon |
| salt and black pepper | to taste |
Equipment Needed
- •Sharp cook's knife
- •Large mixing bowl
- •Small frying pan
Instructions
- 1
Toast the walnuts
Put the walnuts in a dry frying pan over medium heat for three to four minutes, shaking the pan until they smell warm and nutty. Tip them onto a plate at once. Nuts burn in the time it takes to admire your own efficiency, and that is never a good bargain.
- 2
Make the dressing
Whisk the oil, vinegar, mustard, honey, yogurt or mayonnaise, salt, and black pepper in a large bowl until smooth. Taste it now. It should be sharp enough to wake the witlof, sweet enough to round its bitterness, and salty enough that the apple doesn't turn the salad into dessert.
- 3
Slice the witlof
Trim the base from each head of witlof, halve it lengthwise, and cut out the hard little cone at the root end. Slice the leaves crosswise into thin ribbons. That cone is where the bitterness gathers its arguments; remove it, and the salad becomes crisp rather than severe.
If your witlof is very bitter, soak the sliced leaves in cold water for ten minutes, then dry them well. Don't soak longer, or you wash away the clean bite that makes the salad worth making. - 4
Add apple
Core the apple and slice it thinly. Add it straight to the dressing and turn it through so the vinegar coats the cut surfaces. This keeps the apple bright and lets its tartness do its proper work against the bitter leaves.
- 5
Toss and serve
Add the sliced witlof, toasted walnuts, and chives to the bowl, then toss gently until every ribbon is lightly coated. Serve at once, while the leaves still snap under the fork. Witlofsalade waits politely for no one.
Chef Tips
- •Choose witlof heads that are tight, heavy for their size, and pale cream with yellow tips. Green tips mean too much light and a sharper bitterness.
- •Elstar is the apple I like here: tart, crisp, and Dutch enough to know how to behave beside mustard. Granny Smith works if that is what the market gives you.
- •For a more old-fashioned Dutch table, use mayonnaise instead of yogurt. For a lighter weeknight bowl, yogurt keeps the dressing clean and bright.
- •Serve this in winter, when witlof is at its best. In high summer, the calendar is telling you to make cucumber salad instead.
Advance Preparation
- •The dressing can be made up to two days ahead and kept refrigerated in a covered jar.
- •Toast the walnuts a day ahead and keep them in an airtight container.
- •Slice and dress the witlof only just before serving; once cut, it browns and softens quickly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 205g)
Calories
240 calories
Total Fat
20 g
Saturated Fat
3 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
17 g
Cholesterol
5 mg
Sodium
250 mg
Total Carbohydrates
14 g
Dietary Fiber
6 g
Sugars
7 g
Protein
4 g
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