Belgian endive filled with herbed cream cheese makes for an easy, elegant appetizer perfect for holiday gatherings. With fresh, vibrant flavors, these bites offer a lighter, refreshing alternative to richer appetizers with bread, cheese, and meats. Prepare the creamy herb filling ahead of time, then simply fill the endive leaves before serving. If you haven’t tried beautiful endive yet, this is the perfect recipe to start!
When I’m catering parties and my clients want a crudités platter as appetizers, I pair Belgian endive with my version of Green Goddess dip. Here, I’m using cream cheese as the base. The flavors burst with fresh herbs and lemon against the crisp and pleasantly bitter leaves.
Packed with fresh tarragon, parsley, dill, chives, and a little lemon, pipe the filling into Belgian endive leaves for an elegant presentation. If you can find chervil, that’s good too.
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Why You'll Like This Recipe
- Endive leaves make terrific scoopers for dips and vessels for filling.
- They light and elegant but different and so tasty.
- Belgian endive is good for you and comes in both red and white with pale yellowish green edges.
Here's another cream cheese based dip that works as a filling, my easy smoked salmon dip.
Recipe Ingredients
- Belgian endive: Buy large heads, not small ones, and you need more than you think because of how the leaves taper into smaller pieces. Save the small ones for snacking or adding to salads.
- Cream cheese: Use full fat or light.
- Shallot: A member of the onion family with great flavor.
- Sour Cream: Either full fat or low fat, but full fat offers more flavor.
- Mayonnaise: Use your favorite.
- Lemon: You need both zest and juice.
- Herbs: Fresh tarragon, dill, parsley, and chives. Stay with the softer herb varieties.
- Anchovy paste: Honestly, it's not fishy in the recipe but adds a salty depth of flavor. The tube stuff is different than anchovy fillets. Optional (but be brave).
For measurements, salt and pepper (black pepper or white pepper), please see the recipe card.
Chef's note: What is endive? Prized around the world, endive is the elegant member of the chicory family. This family includes escarole and curly endive, most often used for salad greens. For more information, check out the Discover Endive website.
Substitutions and Variations
- To add more flavor try garnishing with crisply crumbled bacon or smoked salmon. A sprinkle of pomegranate arils is festive, offering tasty variations.
- For vegan and non-dairy needs, substitute a plant-based cream cheese, sour cream, and vegan mayonnaise such as Vegenaise or Sir Kensington.
Recipe Instructions
- Set the cream cheese out to soften for at least and hour or two. It will be easier to blend when soft.
- Chop the shallot and herbs.
- When the cream cheese is soft, place all ingredients in a bowl and mix well until smooth with a whisk or flexible spatula. You can also use a food processor.
- Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and white pepper.
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You can use ground black pepper but the white disappears nicely in this recipe. Make the cream cheese filling a few hours ahead or a day or two ahead of time.
Serving Suggestions
To make Belgian endive leaves look like the photos, use a disposable piping bag and a large star piping tip or plain piping tip.
For an easier, more casual presentation, spoon cream cheese filling into a bowl to use as a dip. If the cream cheese filling is too stiff to scoop, thin it with a little milk until is it scoop-able. Serve with the endive leaves or raw veggies and crackers. Spread it on a sandwich or use it in a wrap, like this turkey wrap.
The herbed cream cheese will last 4-5 days in the refrigerator well covered.
Recipe FAQs
Trim the endive leave ends just before serving to avoid browning, and keep the leaves chilled until use.
Yes, use a plant-based cream cheese instead of dairy cream cheese, vegan sour cream, and a vegan mayonnaise for dairy-free stuffed Belgian endive leaves.
Fill the leaves shortly before serving to keep them crisp and prevent the filling from softening the leaves.
It depends on what else you are serving for appetizers or snacks. Plan for about 3 leaves per person. If this is a part of a big appetizer buffet, maybe two per person.
More Terrific Appetizer Recipes
Whether you are looking for dip recipes or something a bit more, check out these recipes and the appetizer recipes index page for lots more ideas!
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📖 Recipe
Belgian endive with herbed cream cheese
Ingredients
- 8 ounces cream cheese at room temp, softened
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped shallot
- ¼ cup sour cream
- ¼ cup Mayonnaise or Vegenaise
- 1 lemon, zested
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons fresh chopped tarragon
- 2 tablespoons fresh chopped dill plus extra for garnish if desired
- 2 tablespoons fresh chopped Italian parsley
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped chives
- ½ teaspoon anchovy paste optional
- ½ teaspoon kosher or sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper or white pepper
- 4-6 heads Belgian endive depending on size
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Instructions
- In a medium bowl, mix all ingredients together until smooth. Refrigerate until needed. Taste and adjust to your preferences. It’s best made a few hours or a day ahead so the flavors have time to meld and develop.
- When well chilled, place filling into a piping bag with a star or French tip. Trim the stem end of the endive leaves and carefully peel the leaves off of the base of the head so you have individual leaves. Place on a platter and fill from the piping bag. Alternatively, spoon the filing into a small bowl or ramekin and serve the endive leaves and crackers around it for guests to help themselves.
Notes
- Add more flavor try garnishing with crisply crumbled bacon or smoked salmon. A sprinkle of pomegranate arils is festive, offering tasty variations.
- For vegan and non-dairy needs, substitute a plant-based cream cheese, sour cream, and vegan mayonnaise such as Vegenaise or Sir Kensington.
Blair says
May I ask why you suggested Veganaise in the recipe? I though at first it was a vegan recipe, but then noticed that there was sour cream and cream cheese and anchovy paste.
Sally Cameron says
Hi Blair. It is not categorized as a vegan recipe. Veganiase is a brand of ready made mayonnaise that i think is very good. It has no eggs and comes made with a variety of oils. Look for it in the refrigerated list of your market. I think it's a lot better than most off the shelf stuff. Hope that helps. Another option is to make your own homemade mayonnaise. That the best, and what I have been doing a lot lately. When I don't have time, I'll use Veganaise.
Diane says
Oh, this looks wonderful and is making me hungry! I just received some beautiful endive in my farm box and can't wait to make this for my next get together with my friend next door.
Renee says
Hello...this is a fabulous recipe, IM very interested in trying it. A quick question tho...will the endive start to get soggy if I pre-fill an hour b4 event? I would keep refrigerated of course!
Ty for your recipe!!!
Renee'
Sally says
Hi Renee. An hour ahead and you'll be fine. Endive is pretty crisp, and do keep them refrigerated (and covered). You don't even need to fill them as full as the photo shows. Less works too. Hope you enjoy!
Meatballs and milkshakes says
Beautiful! I love endive leaves filled with all kinds of things!
susan says
this is gorgeous. I don't even like green goddess, but want to eat this whole plate!!
Madonna says
Sally, How beautiful. I wish I had had this dish to take to my sister’s for Christmas dinner. She and I were running a little late with dinner, and some family members were showing it. She said I should remind her to have a few low-fat hors d'oeuvres so “this” did not happen again. So I guess that is my job now; heehee. Thank you for this recipe. It is just the thing. Ironically she has just found endive and was saying how good it is. I will have to share with her the health benefits. Oh, I almost forgot – tarragon is her favorite herb.
Sally says
One cup of endive per week can reduce ovarian cancer by 75%!! Wow, who knew? Beautiful for a New Year's appetizer, but even more relevant to eating in the new year! This would make a great healthy snack to have around for getting through the stretch from lunch to dinner. Such pretty, festive photos. I don't think I've seen red endive in the Northeast, but will have to keep my eye out for them.
Lisa says
Sal, this blog entry turned out great. Thanks for the links. Pretty interesting to watch the creative process with you and Kent and see the finished result. Happy New Year!