Wikipedia Article About Escarole on Wikipedia Endive (Cichorium endivia) is a winter leaf vegetable which can be cooked or used in salads. It is often confused with the closely related chicory. This linguistic confusion is the result of endive being called chicory and vice versa in certain European languages. Endives were first cultivated in the 1830s in Belgium, and France remains the largest producer of endives. There are three main varieties of endive: Frisée, curly endive and escarole.