FITD Food: Fennel + Citrus

It reached a whopping 45 degrees here in Minnesota, which felt just fine to me!! I rolled down the windows in the car, and it felt just like springtime. Which made me think of summer. Which made me think of fresh vegetables and my summer garden.

Which had me driving to the store in the hopes of finding some wonderful ingredients to make an almost-springtime salad.

For me that meant, fennel and blood oranges.

(Note: if you dislike the taste of black licorice, feel free to immediately discard this post and move on. Fennel is in the anise family.)

Ingredients

• Lettuce of your choice (I used a baby green.)
• A blood orange
• One fennel bulb
• Green onion
• Fresh mint or dill
• Blue cheese crumbles
• Salt/Pepper to taste

Directions

I like to assemble all of my ingredients in advance. Don't they look lovely? And they smell good, too.

(image courtesy of Framed In The Doorway)

I like to rinse and soak my lettuce in ice water for a minute or two. Once you've done that, run it through your salad spinner to rid of excess moisture.

(image courtesy of Framed In The Doorway)

 



Trim your fennel by cutting off the leafy greens. Soak in your ice water and cut into thin slices. A little goes a long way. Also, my knife skills are not the best.



(image courtesy of Framed In The Doorway)

As with your lettuce and fennel, soak your fresh herbs for a bit.

(image courtesy of Framed In The Doorway)

After rinsing them off, divest your green onions of the leafy green bit and finely chop them. (At this point, I throw everything into the salad spinner again.)

(image courtesy of Framed In The Doorway)

Oh, how I love the blood orange!! They seem to have a seasonal life of like five seconds,  so I try to grab them while I can. Peel and chop. (I like smaller, bite-sized pieces.) Oh--and you can use the blood orange in a wonderful reduction sauce. I firmly believe the blood orange has restorative properties.

(image courtesy of Framed In The Doorway)

The finished product: I topped my salad with blue cheese crumbles and fresh pepper to complement the orange and anise flavors. I also pulled out my fancy china. :)

(image courtesy of Framed In The Doorway)

I also made my leek soup. (You may have spotted a leek knocking about in the first picture.)

What about the dressing? I just used a bit of blood orange olive oil and some balsamic.

Light, lovely, perfect!!

Enjoy!

FITD love!!

xo