Fennel, blood orange and watermelon radish salad

April 29, 2015 Published by Dina

I am off to Calgary for the day to see my friends. Sometimes it’s nice not to think about packing a suitcase and booking hotels yet travelling to a different city, experiencing new sights, sounds and the feel of another place. I am catching an early morning flight out of Kelowna with no luggage to worry about and a rental car is waiting for me at the airport in Calgary. Does that count as jet-setting? I look forward to catching up with friends I have history with. Friendships cannot be created artificially. They takes a lifetime of common experiences, a commitment to the relationship and a good dose of love. Friendship takes time and yes, even effort, to develop and maintain. It’s a worthwhile investment though. With true friends in your life, you are never alone.

Here in Kelowna, not having my usual “crew” to hang with, I am spending a lot of time in the kitchen, and it pays off with fun and interesting food. Take this salad. Paper thin sliced fennel tossed with olive oil, lemons juice and coarse sea salt combined with blood orange and its juice, the fennel fronds and pomegranates. Sounds like a fall salad? you are quite right, but that’s what we had in the store this week. We live up at the 50th parallel and summer produce is just beginning to appear.

Ingredients:

1 fennel, including fronds

1 watermelon radish

Juice of 1 lemon

1 teaspoon agave syrup

2 tablespoons olive oil

Coarse sea salt, use Maldon or fleur de sel in this case

2 blood oranges (or regular oranges)

1 cup pomegranate seeds

Lemon-honey dressing (see below)

Directions:

Cut the fennel in half vertically, reserving the fronds, then slice thinly on a mandolin and place in a bowl. Drizzle with olive oil, lemon juice, agave and salt.

Cut the watermelon radish in half, then slice thinly on a mandolin. Add to fennel and mix.

Cut the orange peel away from the flesh of the orange and then cut the orange segments into pieces, removing the membrane

Pile the fennel in the center of salad plates, scatter orange segments over and sprinkle with pomegranate seeds.

Garnish with chopped fennel fronds.

Serve with additional dressing on the side.

Lemon-honey dressing:

Juice of 1 lemon

1/3 cup olive oil

2 tablespoon agave syrup

Combine all ingredients and shake well to emulsify.