Italian Fennel and Orange Salad
Posted: 01 September '10 by Niall
Italian fennel and orange salad
As the temperature in Northern Ireland soared to a stifling 23° last week, we were in the mood for a lighter meal when we got home from work. What better than a zesty Meditteranean salad!
Kelly is a big fan of citrus flavours so this Italian Fennel and Orange salad was a sure-fire winner.
I have to admit, I’ve only braised fennel before, never eaten it raw, so this was a bit of a revelation. The secret lies in slicing the fennel into very thin slivers. The lemon and orange juice effectively “cooks” the fennel in citric accid, so you don’t get overwhelmed by the aniseed – it’s actually very subtle.
All in all the salad is so light, clean and fresh you’ll feel very virtuous after your meal.
Although the salad can be eaten on it’s own I served ours with some butterflied and griddled chicken breasts – the salad made a very tasty accompaniment.
Serves 2
You can see the photos here:
Ingredients
- 2 good-sized fennel bulbs
- 1 Navel orange
- 1 lemon
- 3 tbs of pine nuts
- some good olive oil
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
- Drizzle a drop of olive oil into frying pan and add the pine nuts, toasting them over a low heat.
- Trim the fennel bulbs by removing any wilted or unsightly outer shoots or flesh from the bulb, and keeping the delicate fronds from the fennel.
- Slice the fennel bulb in half and cut an inverted “V” in the bulb so you remove the central, woody core.
- If you have a mandolin you can easily slice the bulbs into wafer-thin pieces – otherwise you need to use a sharp knife.
- Place the sliced fennel into a bowl and add the zest of the lemon and the zest of the orange.
- Peel the remaining skin from the orange, removing as much of the white pith as possible.
- Using a sharp knife, slice the orange into segments by running the blade down the flesh inside each vertical membrane – you should end up with lots of nice, wedge-shaped orange pieces. Place these segments into the bowl.
- Squeeze the juice from half of the lemon over your salad.
- Roughly chop the fennel fronds and add these to the fennel along with the toasted pine nuts, a splash of olive oil, and the salt and pepper.
- Toss the salad ingredients together and serve immediately.
Enjoy!
More information
There are both male and female fennel bulbs. The shorter, round bulb is the female while the taller, more slender bulbs are the males. Some think that there is a subtle difference in flavour, with the female bulbs slightly more preferred to the male.
Tags: belfast taste and music fest, italian food, recipe, vegetarian
Categories: Recipes
