A chewy bitter-sweet crunchy fennel salad with endive and a creamy sauce that makes this fennel salad tasty.
Lovely, if you love crunchy food, then this fennel salad is definitely going to please you. The veggies and the fruits are sliced so that when you crunch on them, you have the juice, sweetness, and flavors released in your mouth.
I love fennels for their anise flavor, crunchiness, and sweetness. The best thing about fennel is that you can enjoy it either raw or cooked. They're easy to cook, and you can add them to your soups and stew.
Try this pan-roasted fennel recipe, and you'll love roasted fennel.
What's fennel?
Fennel belongs to the same family as parsley, celery, and carrots. It has been used in traditional medicine to help alleviate some digestion discomfort.
The bulb is the most consumed part, while the fennel seeds are used as a spice.
Learn these 17 benefits of fennel seeds and how they can help or improve your health.
The Fennel bulb is rich in potassium, phosphorus, sodium, and calcium, making it an excellent food for lowering blood pressure.
What's endive?
Endive, also known as Belgium endive, is from the chicory family, which includes bitter-leafy plants like escarole, radicchio, and frisee.
Endive is bitter, making it hard to eat it alone. I like mixing it with fruits like apples, kiwis, or oranges.
This oval-shaped veggie is high in vitamins A, B group, C, and K. It's also a good source of calcium, phosphorus, iron, and potassium.
Endive contains inulin, a prebiotic fiber that positively influences the gut microbiome by increasing the health-promoting microorganisms.
Fennel salad
I wanted to make a nutrient-dense salad instead of the classic fennel salad. I have found that fennel's anise flavor bounces off the bitter taste of endive and black radish.
Adding an apple and kiwi also creates a sweet-tangy salad.
Fermented carrots add probiotics to this salad, already high in dietary fiber, ensuring to feed and promote the gut microbiome.
Remember to add herbs. I love cilantro, which is high in vitamins A and C. Parsley would be a good substitute.
Folding this fennel salad together is a creamy sauce made from yogurt, tahini, lemon, and cold-pressed rapeseed oil.
Sprinkle the salad with sunflower seeds and black sesame, which has a nutty flavor and crispy texture, and with higher nutrients (especially calcium) than white sesame.
Helpful Tips
Choose endives and fennels that are closely packed, and they should be firm without browning patches.
For a salad, choose young produce as they are softer.
To enjoy this fennel salad, shave the fennels using a mandolin or a vegetable peeler to have thin and soft fennels. If you're starting with endives, begin with a few leaves and chop them thinly.
The same goes for the black radish. You need a small piece that you will slice or grate, and grating really breaks the radish such that you barely feel its bitterness.
If you opt to make this salad in advance, sprinkle the chopped veggies and apple with lemon juice to reduce the browning caused by oxidation. Use the sauce only when about to serve the salad.
Store the chopped veggies in an air-tight container and keep them in your fridge for up to 2 days. Even though the veggies can hold longer, you'll lose nutrients like vitamin C.
Let's beat diseases by eating healthier, you have the power to heal yourself, Githu.
Get more super healthy salads.
- Easy broccoli salad with arugula
- Plantain healthy salad
- Succulent purslane salad
- Spicy arugula salad with fennel
📖 Recipe
A chewy Bitter-sweet crunchy fennel salad with endive
Equipment
- kitchen knife
- Salad spoons
- 1 small jar with a lid
Ingredients
- ½ fennel bulb
- ½ endive
- 1 apple (any type)
- 1 tablespoon fermented carrots
- ½ small golden beet
- a small piece of black radish
- ¼ cup cilantro leaves
- 1 kiwi
- 2 tablespoon sunflower seeds (optional)
- 1 teaspoon black/white sesame seeds
- ½ tablespoon a lemon (in case of meal prep)
Tahini yogurt sauce
- 2 tablespoon plain yogurt of your choice
- 2 tablespoon tahini (runny texture without oil added to it)
- 1 tablespoon cold-pressed oil of choice (optional)
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- ¼ teaspoon grated fresh ginger
- pinch of salt (optional)
Instructions
Tahini yourgt sauce
- Add all the ingredients to a small jar, close it tightly, and shake vigorously to mix. Set aside.
Fennel salad
- Clean all the veggies and fruits
- You can choose to either shred or slice the fennel thinly
- Cut off the base of the endive and thinly chop the leaves
- Slice the beet, apple, and kiwi as desired
- Grate the black radish if you aren't familiar with it
- Bring all the ingredients to a large salad bowl and pour the sauce all over
- Gently mix the salad using the salad spoons
- Sprinkle with seeds and serve. Enjoy.
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Notes
- If making this salad as a meal prep, then leave out the sauce but sprinkle the lemon all over to stop oxidation.
- This salad is crunchy, and some ingredients can be bitter. If you are starting with endive and black radish, taste them alone first and only use a small amount than indicated.
- If staring on a raw salad, I suggest shredding, slicing and chopping the ingredients thinly and into small pieces.
- You can use any fermented veggie of your choice.
- Add more seeds and nuts of your choice.
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