This evening we enjoyed moist, freshly baked lasagne courtesy of Lisa at Locantro Fine Foods dished up with generous servings of my Feel Good Fennel and Apple Textured Salad. Packed with vitamins, fibre and flavour, this salad is also a great way to introduce children to the mild aniseed taste of raw fennel as a way of expanding their appreciation of vegetables and food in general. 


Feel Good Fennel and Apple Textured Salad has a marvellous “mouth feel” quality which is achieved in part by using good quality, fresh ingredients, but also because of the way the fennel is prepared. When sliced into paper thin ribbons, the fennel still manages to retain its crispness while also adding a silky feel to the overall dish as it clings to each ingredient. 

Now I am not an advocate of using a mandolin-style slicing tool, having slipped and sliced into too many of my fingers. I threw out my mandolin after a particularly nasty accident involving my index finger and even the thought of that makes me squirm. I much prefer to use a hardy potato peeler and so I keep at least three of these in a utensils drawer – one always manages to go missing at some point during the year, probably accidentally wrapped and thrown out with the potato peelings. The potato peeler is more time consuming to use, but at least I have all my digits intact. However, when catering for a crowd, I can’t go past rigging up my Magimix food processor with the necessary sized blades which make speedy (and safe) work of slicing through mounds of salad vegetables. 

Feel Good Fennel and Apple Textured Salad

Ingredients
2 baby cos lettuce sliced into wide strips
1 medium fennel bulb – Remove the outer layer and woody stalks and slice into paper thin ribbons using a potato peeler. Finely cut up the delicate fronds and include in the salad as well.
1 large crisp apple peeled and cut into thin slices – I used a fragrant Pink Lady variety
1 Lebanese cucumber peeled and diced into 2 cm sized pieces
1 punnet sweet grape or mini Roma tomatoes cut in half
1 avocado diced into 3 – 4 cm pieces
1 handful of mixed olives – I used glossy Kalamata and green Queen varieties

In a large serving bowl, gently toss together all of the ingredients with the exception of the avocado, olives and half of the tomatoes. Scatter these latter three ingredients evenly over the top of the salad. This salad can also be made into a stand alone meal, by adding thinly sliced strips of chicken or whole peeled prawns that have been sprinkled with fresh lemon thyme and olive oil and grilled.  

Dressing – 
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon verjuice
freshly squeezed juice of a small lemon
good grind of sea salt and a little black pepper

Combine all the ingredients for the dressing in a clean screw top jar, shake to combine and drizzle over the salad just before serving.