This endive salad with radicchio, apple, Porkitos, and hazelnuts is one of my wintertime faves!

Plates of paleo endive, radicchio, apple, hazelnut, and prosciutto salad.

Find yourself craving salad in the dead of winter? Well, you’re in luck, ’cause my friends at Whole Foods Market asked me to share one of my faves. This salad’s packed with sweet apples, bitter greens, crunchy nuts, and even Crispy Prosciutto. Plus, if you’ve been looking for the perfect side dish for my Cracklin’ Chicken, this is it!

First things first: Back away from the sallow, mealy tomatoes at the supermarket. Those tomatoes are anemic for a reason: THEY’RE NOT IN SEASON. Instead, pick up produce that’s at its peak deliciousness in the winter.

Second: Don’t buy into the myth that Paleo’s just about gorging on meat. You gotta get your micronutrients and fiber somewhere, so eat your veggies like your mama told you!

Someone holding a a plate of endive salad, digging into it with a fork.

Time to make this endive salad!

Serves 4

Ingredients

  • 8 Porkitos (a.k.a. crispy prosciutto chips)
  • ¼ cup raw hazelnuts
  • 1 medium radicchio (~8 ounces), halved, cored, and thinly sliced
  • 2 medium endive heads (4 ounces each), ends trimmed, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise
  • 2 Pink Lady apples, quartered, cored, and thinly sliced
  • 2 tablespoons minced chives
  • 2 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley

Dressing

  • ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
  • ¼ cup apple juice (I like Martinelli’s brand the best)
  • 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon organic whole grain mustard or Dijon mustard (be sure to read the label to make sure there aren’t any funny ingredients!)
  • ¼ teaspoon Red Boat fish sauce

Someone chopping up the ingredients for the paleo and whole30 endive salad.

Equipment

Method

The best part of this salad is the crunchy topping of Porkitos and toasted hazelnuts! Make ’em first.

Someone laying out slices of prosciutto on a baking sheet.

Check out my recipe for Crispy Prosciutto here.

Crispy, baked slices of prosciutto on a wire rack.

Forgot to stock up on toasted hazelnuts? No prob—just toast ’em yourself. Place the raw hazelnuts in a single layer on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake the nuts at 350°F for 10-15 minutes or until the skins are crackly and you can smell the nuttiness. You can remove most of the papery skin by rubbing your hot nuts in a clean towel. (Get your mind out of the gutter.)

Toasting and chopping hazelnuts.

Then, roughly chop the hazelnuts and set aside.

Chopped hazelnuts on a cutting board with a chef's knife.

Make the dressing by whisking together the olive oil, apple juice, apple cider vinegar, mustard, and fish sauce in a small bowl. Alternatively, you can use an immersion blender to blitz all the liquid ingredients together in a flash. To be honest, you might not use all the dressing, but I always like to err on the side of making extra in case my bitter greens have more bite than usual. Besides, it’s always good to have extra dressing in the fridge.

Someone making the salad dressing with an immersion blender for the endive salad.

Combine the chopped radicchio, endive, and apples in a large bowl…

Combining the endives and apples in a bowl.

…and toss with ¾ of the dressing. If needed, add more dressing to taste.

Someone pouring the dressing over the endives and apples in a large bowl.

Remember: apples start to brown a few minutes after you cut ’em up, so dress them right away or keep them in salted water until you’re ready to make the salad. (Yeah, you heard me right: salted water! You rinse it off before you eat the apples.)

Toss the salad!

Someone tossing the endive salad with the dressing.

Divide the dressed greens onto four platters and crown each salad with Porkitos, toasted hazelnuts, and a sprinkle of fresh herbs.

Someone cutting chives over a plate of endive salad.

Dig in!

Someone holding a a plate of endive salad, digging into it with a fork.


Looking for more recipe ideas? Head on over to my Recipe Index. You’ll also find exclusive recipes on my iPhone and iPad app, and in my cookbooks, Nom Nom Paleo: Food for Humans (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2013), Ready or Not! (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2017), and Nom Nom Paleo: Let’s Go! (Andrews McMeel Publishing 2022).


 PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE CARD

Endive and Apple Salad

4.75 from 4 votes
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time20 minutes
Total Time30 minutes
Servings 4 servings
This Whole30 salad’s packed with sweet apples, bitter greens, crunchy nuts, and even Prosciutto Chips. It's the perfect winter salad!

Ingredients  

Winter Salad

  • 8 Crispy Prosciutto a.k.a. Porkitos
  • ¼ cup raw hazelnuts
  • 1 medium radicchio ~8 ounces, halved, cored, and thinly sliced
  • 2 medium endive heads 4 ounces each, ends trimmed, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise
  • 2 Pink Lady apples quartered, cored, and thinly sliced
  • 2 tablespoons minced chives
  • 2 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley

Dressing

  • ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
  • ¼ cup apple juice I like Martinelli’s brand the best
  • 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon organic whole grain mustard or Dijon mustard be sure to read the label to make sure there aren’t any funny ingredients!
  • ¼ teaspoon Red Boat fish sauce
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Instructions 

  • The best part of this salad is the crunchy topping of Crispy Prosciutto and toasted hazelnuts! Make ’em first.
  • Forgot to stock up on toasted hazelnuts? No prob—just toast ’em yourself. Place the raw hazelnuts in a single layer on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake the nuts at 350°F for 10-15 minutes or until the skins are crackly and you can smell the nuttiness. You can remove most of the papery skin by rubbing the hot nuts in a clean towel. Then, roughly chop the hazelnuts and set aside.
  • Make the dressing by whisking together the olive oil, apple juice, apple cider vinegar, mustard, and fish sauce in a small bowl. Alternatively, you can use an immersion blender to blitz all the liquid ingredients together in a flash. To be honest, you might not use all the dressing, but I always like to err on the side of making extra in case my bitter greens have more bite than usual. Besides, it’s always good to have extra dressing in the fridge.
  • Combine the chopped radicchio, endive, and apples in a large bowl and toss with ¾ of the dressing. If needed, add more dressing to taste.
  • Divide the dressed greens onto four platters and crown each salad with Porkitos, toasted hazelnuts, and a sprinkle of fresh herbs.

Notes

  • Remember: apples start to brown a few minutes after you cut ’em up, so dress them right away or keep them in salted water until you’re ready to make the salad. (Yeah, you heard me right: salted water! You rinse it off before you eat the apples.)
  • In the summertime, peaches and nectarines can substitute for the apples!

Nutrition

Calories: 361kcal | Carbohydrates: 26g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 27g | Fiber: 10g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Like this? Leave a comment below!

About Michelle Tam

Hello! My name is Michelle Tam, and I love to eat. I think about food all the time. It borders on obsession. I’ve always loved the sights and smells of the kitchen. My mother was (and is) an excellent cook, and as a kid, I was her little shadow as she prepared supper each night. From her, I gained a deep, abiding love for magically transforming pantry items into mouth-watering family meals.

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1 Comment

  1. 5 stars
    I punted with this one. I had Prosciutto, radicchio, apples, baby romaine, lemon and avocado. It had never occurred to me to crisp up Prosciutto! I love it! I think it’s my new thing 🙂 I sprinkled the apple cubes with lemon juice, tossed it all together, topped with the Prosciutto, skipped the dressing and the herbs and it was delicious! Bitter! Sweet! Salt! Sour! A flavor wheel carnival!