Ingredient 38 - Fennel

Fennel is a perennial herb often described as either one’s ‘friend or foe’ depending on your tastebuds!

The herb dates back to ancient Greek time, given the name ‘marathron’ after it was grown on the field of one of the greatest ancient battles fought.

Fennel is quite a versatile ingredient. Its leafy foliage is often used as a base in Italian salads, as well as bulbs baked or eaten raw. Fennel fruits or ‘seeds’ in comparison are quite a unique and strong flavour, resembling that of aniseed, and are mostly used to spice Kashmiri and Guharati cooking.

Shop for bulbs with a clean, firm and solid appearance with no signs of bruising or splitting. The bulbs should be whitish or pale green in colour and leafs bright green.

Enjoy this summer salad!

Shredded Chicken, Fennel and Grape Salad

Serves 4

3 chicken breasts

1 tsp minced garlic

1 chicken stock cube

juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp lemon rind

3 baby fennel

½ white onion

½ bunch flat leaf parsley

1 ½ cups seedless green grapes

Dressing:

2 tbsp capers – drained

2 tsp Dijon mustard

½ tsp minced garlic

4 tsp light olive oil

salt + pepper

• Bring to boil a large saucepan of water. Add chicken stock cube and minced garlic and stir to dissolve. Place chicken breasts in saucepan and poach for 15-20min or until cooked through. Remove and cool slightly
• Thinly slice the baby fennel. Heat a good dollop of olive oil, lemon rind and 1tbsp lemon juice in small saucepan and sauté fennel for 5min or until just wiltered but still firm with crunch.
• Thinly slice the white onion, halve the grapes and roughly chop the flat leaf parsley.
• Once the chicken is cool gently shred the breast with your fingers, pulling small pieces of breast in the direction of the cut to form long thin strands.
• To arrange the salad place the salad ingredients in a large bowl, top with chicken and toss well to combine. Drizzle with dressing and serve immediately.
• To make the dressing roughly chop the capers and place in a bottle with the mustard, olive oil, remaining lemon juice and garlic. Shake well to combine and season with salt and pepper