Poor Man's Coffee

We grow Belgium endive for winter greens but that is not all we use it for. We make a coffee substitute from the dry roasted roots. In appearance it is quite similar to coffee, I personally think it also has a coffee like taste...just no caffeine. It is supposed to have many health benefits.

http://www.orleanscoffee.com/explore/chicory.php

Having used the tops in a salad or stir fry we pull the roots and wash them. They can be a quite a hairy root.

I usually just use my fingers to pull the root hairs off and then use a potato peeler to finish the job. Try to leave as much of the skin on as possible, I think it improves the flavor and health benefits.

Chop the ends off and dice up all the scraps for your chickens or mulch pile.

Then simply slice the roots about 1/8 " thick, place on a tray in the oven, and roast at around 225° for about 2 hours. They can also be dehydrated or dried over a wood stove but may lose the roasted flavor.

The finished product is then ground up fine for a coffee maker or more coarsely for a percolator. You only need to use about a third of the amount you would coffee.

The same thing can be done with dandelion roots, I have tried that but much prefer endive. The biggest problem is keeping my wife out of the chips which are delicious on their own - she eats them faster than I can grind them. While quite satisfactory by itself, we usually do a 70-30% mix of coffee to endive.