Kiddipedia
With only 4 ingredients, Italian Fennel and Orange Salad is the perfect salad recipe, ready in under 5 minutes. Crisp slices of fennel, juicy orange, and a splash of olive oil make this a refreshing side dish with a natural citrus vinaigrette.
Why We Love This
This fennel orange salad is juicy, refreshing and most importantly, fast to prepare. The crisp, almost liquorice flavour of fresh fennel is the perfect pairing with the orange’s citrus kick.
It’s an easy recipe that’s budget friendly, especially when fennel is in season. The orange and olive oil work together to make their own salad dressing, no extra effort required.
What You’ll Need
Crispy, crunchy fennel pairs up with sweet, juicy orange slices in this popular Italian salad recipe. Top with a dash of high-quality olive oil and a good sprinkling of cracked black pepper and sea salt and you’re done.
- Fennel – This bulbous herb is actually a member of the carrot family – even though it looks much more like celery with dill-like leaves. Fennel is at its freshest (and cheapest) when in season during autumn / winter. Keep a look out at your local supermarket or farmer’s market. If you can, pick a bulb with fennel leaves as they make a great garnish on the salad. Substitute with fresh celery or Chinese cabbage (bok choy). You could also experiment with a good sprinkling of powdered fennel or anise seeds to give that classic fennel “liquorice” flavour to the dish.
- Orange – Naval oranges work beautifully in this dish. For a unique look, swap it out for blood oranges.
Wandercook’s Tips
- Use High Quality Ingredients – especially with oil, make sure to use extra virgin olive oil for the best flavour depth. Many basic vegetable oils bring almost no flavour to a dish.
- To Slice the Fennel, first cut off all the stalks, then slice it in half from top to bottom. Cut a triangle shape from the centre of the bulb to remove the fibrous core. Then slice from top to bottom in strips.
- Play with Texture by slicing the fennel super thin or extra thick to see which style you like best! Using a mandolin can give you nice thinly sliced fennel.
- Fennel Tops – Save the tops of your fennel to use instead of salad greens, or pop them on top as a garnish.
Thanks to Wandercooks
The original recipe can be seen here.
