Chicory Boats with Tuna & Apple

📝 Ingredients

• 2 heads of chicory (about 150 g each)
• 1 can of tuna in water (100 g drained)
• 100 g fromage frais 3 %
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 small apple (about 120 g)
• ¼ lemon (juice)
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh chives
• 15 g walnut halves
• Salt, black pepper

🍴 Utensils

• Chopping board
• Paring knife
• Mixing bowl
• Fork
• Tin opener

📖 Steps

1. Quickly rinse the chicory and pat dry. Cut 1 cm off the base and remove the small bitter core with the tip of the knife. Carefully separate 8 nice leaves from each head, trimming the base again whenever they resist.
2. Finely slice the remaining hearts of the chicory, i.e. the small leaves in the centre: they'll go into the filling and add crunch, so nothing goes to waste.
3. Wash the apple but don't peel it, for colour and crunch; remove the core and cut it into tiny 5 mm dice. Immediately drizzle with the lemon juice and toss so they don't turn brown.
4. Drain the tuna thoroughly by pressing the lid down onto the tin: too much water would make the filling runny. Flake it with a fork into the mixing bowl.
5. Add the fromage frais, mustard, chives, sliced chicory heart and diced apple. Season lightly with salt, add pepper, then mix gently: the filling should be creamy but hold its shape on a spoon.
6. Roughly chop the walnut halves with a knife. Fill each chicory leaf with a heaped tablespoon of the mixture at the base end, where the leaf is deepest and firmest, then sprinkle with the walnuts.
7. Serve immediately. To prepare ahead, keep the filling in a container in the fridge and only fill the leaves at the last minute: otherwise they go soft and release water.