Autumn, season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, particularly when that mellow fruitfulness refers to rather delicious warm salad. The only problem with warm salads is that when you tip a whole load of freshly griddled vegetables or roasted nuts on top of lettuce, it has a tendency to wilt. And there is nothing worse than wilted, soggy, slimey lettuce. This is where the chicory comes in. It is more robust and can take a pile of warm ingredients without giving up the ghost. The second bonus is that they are natural receptacles to scoop up any toppings allowing you to eat it with your hands, crucial when you are too glued to Netflix to operate a knife and fork. I am not going to pretend that this in any way "like nachos", chicory pales in comparison to cheese and bean laden tortilla chips and I am not the sort to peddle clean living alternatives - if you want nachos, have nachos. But technically the method of getting toppings to mouth using an edible scoop is a little similar. 

We topped the chicory with some roasted patty pan, cobnuts and English blue cheese and then drizzled with a little olive oil. Delicious and ridiculously easy as the vine below shows: