Roasted root vegetables

A number of vegetables from the family Asteraceae have a bitter taste, such as endive Cichorium endivia), the aerial part (leaf rosette) of which is eaten as a salad. Lettuce Lactuca sativa) sometimes has a bitter taste, particularly the stalk and the white milky juice. Chicory (C. intybus var. foliosum) is slightly bitter, and is cultivated for salad leaves called chicons (etiolated buds) growing from the root vertex in the dark. Roasted chicory root (C. i. var. sativum) is used in the manufacture of coffee surrogates. Bitter substances of these vegetables are primarily sesquiterpenic... 

Chicory is the perennial turnip-shaped vegetable the tops of which are commonly used as a salad green and the young roots of which may be boiled and eaten like carrots. The roots are also kiln dried, then roasted and ground it then looks like ground coffee. Coffee with chicory additive is more bitter, heavier, and darker than pure coffee. 

Foods. Historically, grown in Europe as a vegetable, for edible peeled stalks leaves as a salad green or potherb (with spines removed) roots eaten (soaked overnight in water to remove bitterness) flower receptacle eaten like artichoke roasted seeds used as a coffee substitute. ... 

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