Fennel and orange salad

Salads come to the fore in hot weather, helped along by the often overlooked fennel. This salad is 1g protien per serve, or can be made protein-free. You need to start this salad one hour before serving. Serves two as a main or four people as a side salad.

Shaved fennel salad with orange-coriander dressing

Ingredients

2 medium sized fennel bulbs
Juice of one orange, or 2tbsp orange juice
1/2 a lemon or, for those of us without a fresh lemon on standby, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice.
salt to taste
75g rocket leaves. (This is 2phe worth of rocket but if you can use other salad leaves if you want a phe-free salad.)
For the dressing
2 medium oranges
1/2 medium lemon, or 1tbsp lemon juice
4 g coriander seeds
2 g black pepper seeds
8 leaves basil
salt to taste
30 ml extra virgin olive oil

Method

  1. Wash the fennel and cut it in half from bottom to top. Shave the fennel with a mandolin or thinly slice with a good knife. Place it in a container with a lid.
  2. Mix the orange and lemon juices over the shaved fennel and season with the salt. Marinate the ingredients for 1-hour in the fridge.
  3. To make the dressing, peel the orange and divide into segments. With a knife, remove the skin of each orange segment to create small slices of orange with only the fruit. Then cut each segment into 3-4 pieces and add to a small bowl. Squeeze in one tablespoon of lemon juice and season with a pinch of salt, cracked black pepper and cracked coriander seed. Add the olive oil. Finely chop the basil and add to the bowl. Mix well and set aside.
  4. When the fennel is marinated, strain and add to a salad bowl with rocket. Add the orange dressing and mix. Serve in the salad bowl.

I hope you enjoy this recipe, please let me know what you think.