Chicory

PEI’s midsummer roadsides are lined with colourful wildflowers. White, yellow, gold, pink, purple, and brown are common, but blue stands out for its rarity. One of our few blue wildflowers is Chicory (Cichorium intybus).  

Photo: Chicory (Chicorium intybus) overview (left), flower (top right) and root (bottom right) on PEI.

Chicory is a non-native perennial that prefers full sun and is able to handle poor soil, drought, and salt – all challenges of roadsides. Its only major dislike is shade, which is just as well: it means Chicory isn’t likely to become invasive in the Island’s natural habitats.

With no leaves on its upper stems, Chicory can appear half-dead and spindly from a distance (left photo). But a closer look reveals beautiful flowers (top right photo) that attract bees, butterflies, flies, and other pollinators. Despite the flowers’ rich blue colour, Chicory pollen is white; if you look closely at visiting insects, you’ll see them covered in it.

The buds, flowers, and young leaves of Chicory are all edible, albeit somewhat bitter. Belgian Endive, Curley Endive, Escarole, and Radicchio are varieties of Chicory, and its flavour is similar though more pronounced. As with many plants, Chicory’s bitterness intensifies with age and the compounds that contribute to this are water-soluble; boiling older leaves (changing the water as needed) can improve their flavour.

Chicory is most famous for its root (bottom right photo), which doesn’t have caffeine but has been used as both a coffee additive and substitute for centuries. Mixing Chicory root with coffee gained popularity in Europe in the early 19^th century and extended to North America a few decades later, mostly as a way to make scarce and expensive coffee stretch further.

You can try this yourself by collecting and cleaning Chicory roots, slicing them into small, evenly-sized pieces, dehydrating, and then roasting at 300F until they’ve browned (check on them often, but this usually takes an hour or more). Process the roasted roots in a coffee or spice grinder. I suggest starting out with something around a 1:3 Chicory to coffee ratio. If you like the flavour, increase the Chicory. 

While Chicory root gained fame as a hot drink, that’s not its main use today. Chicory roots are high in inulin, a carbohydrate that humans can’t digest. As a result, it has little impact on blood sugar. Inulin is widely used commercially as a low-calorie and diabetic-friendly sweetener and is added to some foods as a prebiotic to enhance intestinal health. Today, most commercial inulin comes from a cultivated variety of Chicory. 

Chicory has been on the Island since at least the late 1800s, and by the 1950s was still restricted to areas around towns and cities. Today it can be found from North Cape to Souris, and keen-eyed observers might spot it along both the TransCanada Highway and Route 2 in Central PEI. Late July and August is the best time to spot this colourful part of PEI Untamed!