Endive and Mandarin Orange Goat Cheese Appetizer

By Amy Gorin, MS, RDN

Get your next party started with these ready-in-minutes endive boats. This mandarin orange recipe also works great as an afternoon snack. 

This appetizer is super easy to make, and the cheese mixture perfectly compliments the slightly bitter endive. You don't even need a frying pan to whip it up!

Are you a reluctant entertainer? When I need an easy appetizer for date night or having friends over, I love having a recipe on hand that takes just minutes to make yet is impressive. Enter this deliciously healthy goat cheese appetizer.

I put together a few of my favorite ingredients: Belgian endive, mandarin oranges, creamy goat cheese, and mint. Each endive leaf is a combination of delicious flavors!

So yeah, this mandarin orange appetizer uses four ingredients! I love the way that the fresh mint accents the goat cheese, as well as how the mandarin oranges provide a juicy sweet tang. If you'd like, you can add a dash of salt and pepper.

And there you have it! Serve this mandarin orange appetizer recipe at your next gathering, or impress your significant other by offering this beautiful endive goat cheese appetizer before dinner.

Or if you're like me, have some endive with goat cheese as an afternoon snack. 

The best part? Each endive boat is just 40 calories. So you can definitely eat more than one of these tangy goat-cheese-stuffed appetizers.

I always like to include some substitution options, so here you go:

• If you don't have goat cheese, use cream cheese or blue cheese

• If you want a warm snack, you can bake the goat cheese in a baking dish for about 15 minutes. Baked goat cheese is so tasty!

• If you want to make the appetizer more decadent, top it with a little drizzle of olive oil.

• If you want to make the endive boat spicy, add a dash of red pepper flakes and use herbed goat cheese as a base.

Also, note that 5 ounces should be about the size of a log of goat cheese. Some logs are a little smaller, though, about 4 ounces.

You'll love this endive goat cheese appetizer! If you like cheese, you'll also enjoy my healthy brie cheese appetizer. Love the taste of oranges? Give my orange strawberry smoothie a sip!

Want more orange recipes? Give these recipes a try:

• Mandarin orange smoothie bowl
• Mandarin orange French toast
• Orange coconut parfait

• Herb scissors
• Small serving tray
• Large serving tray
• Serving tongs

This blog post was updated in June 2020.

I'd love to hear from you! What are your favorite party appetizers? What else do you make with heads of endive?

Comment below, or tag @amydgorin on Instagram and Pinterest and @amygorin on Twitter and Facebook.

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