This week I featured the vegetable fennel on So Much On My Plate, with 3 easy recipes:
Honey and Lemon Fennel Slaw
Chef at Home Michael Smith told me this recipe, which is a very fast way to make a great side dish to accompany almost any meal.
Ingredients:
1 large bulb fennel
1 tbsp. honey
1 tbsp. olive oil
juice of half a lemon
salt and pepper to taste
Chop the top fronds and stalks off the fennel bulb and remove any brown or discoloured splotches on the outside of the bulb. Grate the fennel on the largest holes of a box grater and put the grated fennel in a bowl. Add all other ingredients and stir to blend. Serves 2.
Fennel and Blood Orange Salad
Blood oranges have a very sweet, dark flavour and are almost purply inside. They are in season right now, so check them out. You can use regular oranges if you can’t find them.
Ingredients:
1 bulb fennel
2 blood oranges
2 stalks of celery, leaves included
1/2 cup small black Italian or French olives
extra-virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Cut the stalks and any bad spots off the fennel bulb and reserve a few of the fronds. Slice the fennel crosswise into the thinnest slices you can make. (I use a Japanese mandolin for this) Layer the fennel onto a wide plate or shallow casserole. Slice the skin off the blood oranges and then cut crosswise into narrow slices. Place the blood orange slices over top of the fennel. Chop the celery stocks and leaves together and sprinkle over the orange. Add salt and pepper to taste, and drizzle all over with olive oil. Top with the olives and garnish with a few of the fennel fronds. Serve cold or at room temperature. Serves 4.
Fennel Baked with Parmesan and Bread Crumbs
You can play around with this recipe a bit and perhaps jazz up the parmesan and breadcrumb mixture with minced garlic, or maybe some fresh herbs.
Ingredients
1 large bulb fennel, stalks removed and sliced into 1/2 inch slices
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Pre-heat oven to 350F. Mix together the bread crumbs, cheese, salt and pepper. Grease a medium-sized casserole with olive oil, then spread half of the fennel slices on the bottom. Top with half of the bread crumb mixture and drizzle with olive oil. Add the rest of the fennel slices, top with the rest of the bread crumb mixture and drizzle again with olive oil. Bake in oven for about 30 minutes, or until the fennel is tender. Serve hot or at room temperate.
