Fennel, Orange & Olive Salad

There’s nothing like the fresh crunchy flavor of fennel bulbs and they’re a perfect ingredient in this fennel, sliced orange and olive salad. I put fennel in just about any kind of salad; use a mandolin to slice fennel paper thin for your salad. Fennel tends to turn brown so toss the fennel slices in a little lemon juice.

Fennel grows in summer and winter, and I usually grow it in my winter garden. Most gardeners work with a limited garden space and try to pair symbiotic vegetables together. Every vegetable has another veggie or two that enhance its growth, plus one or two that stunt its growth. So a carefully planned garden makes a lot of sense if you want to optimize your yield and vegetable quality. Fennel can impede the growth of many other vegetables.

Oranges from Sicily are succulent and delicious beginning around November. This follows the olive harvest season; almost everyone uses a small amount of their olives to cure for culinary uses. So it’s a natural that fennel, oranges and cured olives would find their way together in this delicious salad!

The olive assortment at the market is vast, but the ones I use in this salad are cured from our own olive trees. We cure our olives two ways: in rock salt for a month until all the bitter juices purge off, or in salamoia…a salt water solution:

Other things you can do with fennel:

I always slice up lots of fennel, carrots and celery and keep a plate near me all day. That way the temptation to go for cookies and chocolate is staved off. Seriously though, they are great to crunch on at just about any time.

Another thing we love is roast fennel: slice up the fennel, toss with olive oil and salt, place on a cookie sheet and roast in a 400°F oven for about twenty minutes until just tender…delicious!

And one of my favorite dishes that’s so easy to prepare is Risotto with Fennel!

Fennel, Sliced Orange and Olive Salad

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

Two fennel bulbs, cored and thinly sliced using a mandolin, food processor or sharp knife
Juice of one medium lemon
Two oranges, peeled and thinly sliced
Black Gaeta olives, pitted, about fifteen (or other tasty olives)
Extra virgin olive oil, 60 milliliters (1/4 cup)
Salt

Preparation:

Place the fennel in a bowl and toss well with the lemon juice. This will keep the fennel from turning brown.
Peel the oranges using a sharp knife, making sure all the white pith is removed.
Cut the oranges in half, then slice each half into 1/2 centimeter (1/4 inch) wide slices.
Be sure to reserve the excess orange juice and add it to the salad.
Toss the oranges, fennel and olives together with the olive oil.
Salt to taste and serve in an attractive serving bowl.

Please note that the below printable recipe can be viewed and printed in either metric or U.S. conventional measurements; just click on your preference within the recipe.

Fennel, Sliced Orange and Olive Salad

Almost any tasty olive is great in this salad!

Print

Course Salad

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 10 minutes

Servings 4

Ingredients

• Two fennel bulbs cored and thinly sliced using a mandolin
• Juice of one medium lemon
• Two oranges peeled and thinly sliced
• 15 Black Gaeta olives or other tasty olives pitted
• 60 milliliters Olive oil
• Salt to taste

Metric - U.S. Customary

Instructions

1. Place the fennel in a bowl and toss well with the lemon juice. That will keep the fennel from turning brown.
2. Peel the oranges using a sharp knife, making sure all the white pith is removed.
3. Cut the oranges in half, then slice each half into 1/2 centimeter (1/4 inch) wide slices.

4. Toss the oranges, fennel and olives together with the olive oil.

5. Place in a serving bowl, salt to taste and serve.

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