Fennel is one of the few vegetables Ezra will eat regularly. He’s liked it since he was a toddler and prefers the stems to the bulb, which is fine with me since I’m often buying more stem than bulb anyway. Ezra starts with the tender parts of the long stems and then chews on the stringy bits. On a recent Friday night, we happened to be right by Feast and Floret a restaurant in Hudson (New York), as they were opening for dinner. It had been a while since we’d tried eating out as a family; so, we decided to be brave and see if we could all stay seated for the duration. It ended up a success , we enjoyed a really lovely time (though we were in and out of the restaurant in under an hour) and an extremely delicious meal. For part of my meal, I ordered their shaved fennel salad with pistachios, feta and olives. I was surprised when Ezra devoured the entire bowl and thought I was immediately inspired to try this at home. Since I usually have these ingredients on hand (always plenty of fennel bulbs) I made a variation of the salad the next night. He gobbled it up—despite the fact that during our meal at Feast and Floret he had declared that they were much better cooks than me!
This is my version of the Feast and Floret salad with a spring twist, using chives and mint—the only edible plants that have come back in our garden so far this spring. I recently ate the salad with basmati rice and a jammy egg—which was a lovely, light and easy meal. On my last post a reader asked for a spring bowl recipe, and I think the aforementioned combination is a simple and elegant solution that I know I’ll be repeating.
Let me know if you like it!
Amy, xo
Note:
When I say “trimmed fennel” in the recipe I mean not only stems removed but also any tough outer layers of the fennel. Weigh it after trimming. I used 3 small-medium bulbs to end up with 3 cups shaved fennel.
Spring shaved Fennel Salad
Serves 2 to 4
250 g trimmed fennel bulbs
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
¼ cup salted and shelled pistachios, roughly chopped
60 g feta, broken up (1/2 cup)
8 Castelvetrano olives, pitted and roughly torn
3 tablespoons torn mint leaves
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
Flakey sea salt to taste
Quarter fennel bulbs, core and shave on a mandolin. You should end up with 3 cups of shaved fennel. Place in a medium size serving bowl and immediately toss with the lemon juice to prevent browning. Add pistachios, feta, olives, mint, chives, olive oil, red wine vinegar and a pinch of salt. Gently toss to combine, taste and season with more salt to taste. Serve immediately.
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