Chicory Root Roasted

Description

Cichorium intybus Chicory is a larger relative of the dandelion. Its large tap root has been used as a coffee substitute for generations, especially when coffee was unavailable. Chicory’s leaves are used in salads and spring tonics in the same way as dandelion greens. It has been cultivated along the Nile in Egypt for thousands of years, and was used to assist with liver problems. Pliny the Elder wrote that chicory juice, when combined with rose oil and vinegar, was a good headache remedy. Charlemagne listed it as one of the herbs he required be grown in his garden. It was brought to North America from Europe in the 18th century, and is now established quite well here. Chicory can also be eaten as a food, and consumed as a beverage making it the number one coffee substitute.