Recipe/ Salads/ Vegetarian

Warm Roasted Fennel & Shaved Radish Salad

So I got smacked in the face at the grocery store the other day.

Not literally, of course. Most people at my grocery store just keep their heads down, plow through anyone who dares to stop short or abandon their cart in the middle of the isle, and grunt disgruntledly, on occasion. Oh yeah, and there’s a lot of huffing and puffing like they’re gonna blow the line up to the cashier down too.

Warm Fennel Salad

It’s probably because it’s located right on the subway line and everyone who stops through there is either on their way to a job they hate, on their way home from a job they hate, or looking for a job they will hate. I just figure that must be the reason for their anger and impatience because I can’t possibly fathom why anyone would choose to go to the grocery store with so much obvious aggression.

…Maybe they’re all on ‘roids?

Fresh Fennel Salad

Right. Smacked in the face. So, I got smacked in the face at the grocery store the other day. In an effort to re-focus She Eats – and myself – on seasonal, local ingredients, you know I’m selecting one seasonal item per week to talk with your about. I Googled it, and as it turns out, there is literally NO local & seasonally grown food available in Toronto over the next couple of months. So, forced to make an executive decision, I opted to select an ingredient I knew I could get in slightly less harsh climates this time of year. No, not bananas. Not quite that “less-harsh”. Fennel! For fennel salad! I used to get fennel through the Winter when I lived in B.C., so that seemed a legit choice.

So, I loaded up my arms with 3 abnormally-giant bulbs of fennel and made my way to the till and waited to give the cashier my hard earned bucks, careful to avoid the gusts of wind coming from the line behind me.

Roasted Fennel Salad

Then came the total: $12.00.

WTF?! TWELVE DOLLARS?! That’s a third of what I used to pay for my CSA box where I got more produce than I knew what to do with! Twelve dollars for 3 bulbs of in-season produce?? And roasting veg at that – that shit should be cheap like ‘yo mamma on a Saturday night! Slap!

Dazed – and confused how my understated Winter Fennel salad (with all other ingredients included) could cost more than I spend on public transit in a week – I asked the cashier to confirm. He did. So, not wanting to make a fuss – and for fear of the gale force winds growing behind me – I shoved the over-priced anise flavored veggies into my re-usable shopping bag and moped home.

Winter Fennel Salad

Research, farmers and real food eaters alike regularly tell us that eating in season will save us money. And for the most part, that’s true. Just not at the grocery store where produce that could easily be sourced from local producers, is often shipped in from half way across the planet. I think I’ll be doing more research as to near-by farmer’s markets, even if the only thing on market right now is from storage. Perhaps this is why conventional food eaters think it costs so much to eat local – their only experience with anything remotely seasonal is at their neighborhood chain grocery store. This doesn’t bode well for small scale, local farmers. Or for my wallet.

Lesson learned: Get out, find a farmer, eat their produce. It’s cheaper and tastes better.

All of that being said, this fennel salad tasted pretty fuckin’ good. Roasting fennel reduces the sharp anise flavor you find in it raw, and paired with shaved radishes and a salty, grainy cheese that melts and gets all gooey inside, Winter just doesn’t get any better than this.

Warm Roasted Fennel Salad & Shaved Radish Salad

Prep

Cook

Total

Yield 4 servings

Ingredients

  • 4 Bulbs of Fennel.
  • Handful of Radishes.
  • 4 Oz. Grana Padano or Parmesan Cheese.
  • Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
  • Coarse Sea Salt & Fresh Cracked Black Pepper.

Instructions

  1. Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees F.
  2. As the oven heats, cut the stemmed tops of the bulbs off and the bottom icky bit. Discard, reserving a few sprigs of leaves for garnish.Slice bulbs into quarters, discarding bulky, rough outer layer. Place quarters onto a shallow baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil, season generously with salt and pepper. Mix well to coat. Place in hot oven and roast for 45-50 minutes or until pieces are tender. Shake & flip pieces after about 30 minutes or when there's a generous amount of color on one side.
  3. While the fennel roasts, carefully slice radishes as thinly and evenly as possible. A mandolin will help with this if you can't get thin enough - I just used my knife though because I got mad skillz.
  4. Do the same with the cheese. Set both aside.
  5. When fennel is finished roasting, toss with cheese, radishes and saved sprigs of fennel leaves.
  6. Eat.

 

Do you like fennel? Any good recipes? Have you had a similar experience to mine? One that contradicts it? Share in the comments below!

  • Kirsten
    January 10, 2014 at 1:30 PM

    Kristy,
    This salad is simply stunning–your photographs are amazing.
    I have not noticed ‘roid rage’ in the check out line, possibly because I’m usually hitting the self checkout and am in and out.
    I did grow some fennel last summer with the intention of adding it to spaghetti sauce, but when I went to harvest I couldn’t bear to withdraw the food source of the Black Swallowtail Butterfly larvae (the caterpillars) so that fennel is now buried under snow.

    • Kristy Gardner
      January 10, 2014 at 3:00 PM

      Thank you Kirsten! Evidently the light was working with me that day. Sometimes she’s a bitch and tries to make broad sunlight in my images, or is too dark. I like it when we agree 😉

      You are too sweet!!! That’s amazing that you left the fennel for the bugs. Is there something particular about that variety of butterfly (squirmy scary caterpillars – seriously. i have an irrational fear of the blasted things. butterflies too, now that we’re talking about it. i have a thing with flapping wings) that touches you so? Or would any butterfly gotten to have eaten your harvest?

      • Kirsten
        January 15, 2014 at 8:16 AM

        Disclaimer: I’m not an entomologist, though I think I can spell that correctly and do know that it means a Bug Person.
        There are several types of butterflies whose larvae (caterpillars) like to eat fennel, and the most common one around here is the Black Swallowtail.
        They aren’t endangered, like Monarchs are with the loss of their milkweed habitat, but they are pretty. I got into butterflies when we decided to make a butterfly garden at the edge of the woods behind the place we lived in Virginia. My daughter and I would dig up milkweed from patches near a gym I used, and transplant it to the garden.
        One time a plant stem broke off, and I stuck it in a vase and attempted to root it in the dining room.
        The rooting part failed, but my son noticed that there was a tiny caterpillar munching away on one of the leaves. We fed the caterpillar (moved it to a box but it stayed in the dining room), watched it spin a chrysalis, watched the butterfly emerge from the chrysalis, and set it free.

        It was the coolest thing ever.

        So I started fostering Monarch caterpillars each season, and have fostered some Yellow Tiger Swallowtail and Black Swallowtail caterpillars as well. It’s cool to see them change and to see them fly away.

        Now spiders, cockroaches, and especially centipedes in Hawaii–them I’m not so fond of and will escort out of my house if we come across each other. It’s only caterpillars–in a box–that I welcome into my dining room.

  • Sam
    January 10, 2014 at 7:39 PM

    Welcome to every shopping experience I’ve ever had since moving to NYC…

    That said, this looks amazing. I don’t think I can get fennel locally right now either, but wow, I want this right now.

    • Kristy Gardner
      January 12, 2014 at 9:05 AM

      It’s insane Sam!! I just don’t get it! It must be an East coast thing. I thought Brooklyn was supposed to be a real, local food mecca?

  • Joanne T Ferguson
    January 10, 2014 at 9:23 PM

    G’day! Looks gorgeously healthy Kristy, true!
    I am now salivating for fennel and your salad too!
    Cheers! Joanne

    • Kristy Gardner
      January 12, 2014 at 9:04 AM

      Thank you so much Joanne! That was the idea 😉

  • Joanne
    January 11, 2014 at 7:16 AM

    Occasionally I find in-season produce that is ridiculously overpriced also, and it totally baffles me! Goes against all the rules of nature. But your salad looks great!

    • Kristy Gardner
      January 12, 2014 at 9:04 AM

      I know, right?? Rules of nature indeed!!

  • Meghan@CleanEatsFastFeets
    January 13, 2014 at 6:29 PM

    While I’m not a huge fan of fennel, overpriced or not, I think these pictures are absolutely gorgeous. The colors, the clarity. I’d eat this happily. Well done my friend. Now onto the farmers market. I know they’re currently selling cheese at mine. That’s a win win right there.

    • Kristy Gardner
      January 14, 2014 at 8:46 AM

      Awww.. Thank you Meghan! Take THAT FoodGawker – they shot down these photos! WTF?!

      PS. Cheese is an amazing idea. Note to self: Cheese post must be written. And consumed.

      • Meghan@CleanEatsFastFeets
        January 14, 2014 at 8:58 AM

        Are you effing kidding me? Your pictures just made me want to eat a vegetable I don’t even like. Those people are fools.

        • Kristy Gardner
          January 14, 2014 at 4:48 PM

          hahahaha – word, sister. I don’t know why I even try…

  • Casey @ Salted Plates
    January 19, 2014 at 11:37 AM

    I want this right now!

    • Kristy Gardner
      February 3, 2014 at 2:03 PM

      Thanks Casey! I’ll send you some 🙂

  • angela@spinachtiger
    January 29, 2014 at 10:38 AM

    It’s been way too long since I’ve had fennel and now I’m going to have to go out in the freezing cold and find some to make right away. You know a blog post is good when it does that.

    • Kristy Gardner
      February 3, 2014 at 2:03 PM

      Absolutely. I’ll TAKE IT Angela 😉 Thanks a lot! Hope you enjoy!

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