Cooked fennel salad with lemon and olive oil dressing Istrian Recipe
Cooked fennel salad is a great choice when you want to complete a meal with a simple salad, all you need is a few humble fresh fennel bulbs and an uncomplicated olive oil and lemon dressing which will get soaked up with some crunchy bread.
This fennel salad is rustic and informal, very healthy and nutritious and a great companion to grilled meats and fish, very fresh and incredibly easy to prepare, can be done in advance, stored in a fridge and served cold on a hot summer day.
Along the Slovenian coast, where I grew up, the area is blessed with Mediterranean climate, which subsequently means that there is an abundance of fennel, a very much loved vegetable by the locals, it is traditionally eaten raw or cooked in salads, or braised, which does go down a treat. Wild fennel is also abundant and grows just about anywhere it can, the fronds are used in the local cuisine instead of flat leaf parsley or in combination with.
I am sharing here this traditional and unpretentious cooked fennel salad that it has been made in my family, and by the locals, well, since forever.
If you go so the food store, see some lovely fennel bulbs, and not quite sure what to do with them, you can start with this recipe...
Ingredients
Serves 4-6 as part of meal
few fresh fennel bulbs, approximately 900g (smaller bulbs are better for this dish)
extra virgin olive oil, a very generous drizzle
1 lemon (juice of ½ or whole lemon, depending on a taste)
fresh flat leaf parsley, roughly or finely chopped (amount to taste)
sea salt
black pepper, optional
fennel fronds, optional
Method
Wash fennel bulbs under cold running water and dry them with kitchen paper or clean kitchen towel.
Place the bulbs on the chopping board and cut off the hard hollow stalks from the bulb which are quite tough and very fibrous. Cut the feathery fronds from the stalks if you are using them for this dish for adding extra flavour and garnish.
Discard the stalks or use them in other recipes for soups and stews, you can use them as a bed for roasted chicken or other meats, and roasted fish.
Trim off a thin layer of the root end of the bulb (the base of the fennel bulb).
Stand your fennel straight up and slice in half.
Check how big the core is, if it is quite big, it is a good idea to remove it for this recipe, as they are very fibrous. The cooking time for this recipe is fairly short, and the core, if not removed, could stay quite hard.
To remove the core, take a knife at a 45 degree angle on both sides of the core and slice in, the core will pop out easily.
Place the fennel in a pot, add boiling water, about ¾ up, alternatively you can steam the fennel.
Put the lid on and gently simmer for about 15 minutes, cooking time will depend on the size of the fennel pieces and the desired consistency.
Adjust cooking time, depending on whether you want the fennel quite soft, or prefer it with still quite a bit of a bite.
Drain in a colander, run under cold water, leave to drain well and cool a bit.
Slice cooked fennel to your liking.
Transfer sliced fennel onto a serving plate.
Season with sea salt and black pepper, if using.
Dress cooked fennel with very generous extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice.
Sprinkle with chopped fresh flat leaf parsley an fennel fronds, if using.
Serve at room temperature or cold, place the serving plate in the middle of the table for everyone to help themselves, and make sure you have some crunchy bread to soak up all those juices.
Just a thought
For extra flavour, sprinkle dressed fennel salad with dried garlic, not a very traditional way of serving, but a nice addition or a variation of the recipe.