Everything in this salad is refreshing – crisp fennel, juicy citrus and creamy avocado. A few generous shavings of parmesan on top bring a mature touch to balance all that freshness. The only dressing is extra virgin olive oil, as the orange adds enough sweet acidity.
Ingredients
- 1 medium bulb fennel
- 1 large navel orange, or four clementine tangerines
- 1 ripe avocado
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Salt
- Black pepper
- Parmesan cheese shavings
Directions
- Cut the stems off the fennel and trim the bottoms of the bulbs. Shave off any brown spots on the outside of the bulbs. Slice the bulbs in half lengthwise. Use two diagonal cuts to slice out the triangular wedge of core at the base of each half.
- With the cut side down, slice each half horizontally, shaving off slices as thin as you can manage (you can also use a mandoline if you have one).
- Place the shaved fennel in a large bowl. Add a generous drizzle of olive oil and a healthy sprinkling of salt and pepper – season the fennel generously, as it will share its seasonings with the orange and avocado. Toss well to coat.
- Cut oranges: Take a slice off the top and bottom of the orange or tangerine. With the orange standing up on its flat end, cut off the peel in curved strips, working your way around the orange.
- Halve the orange or tangerine vertically. Placing each half cut side down, cut into thin slices (I find a serrated knife is easiest to avoid squeezing out all the juice). Add the oranges to the fennel and toss gently.
- Cut avocado into slices. Check out this guide if you don’t know how (one addition to that guide: a gentle twist is the best way to separate the two halves).
- You can toss the avocado with the salad, but it does look a bit messy. If you like to keep things neat, you can plate the salad, placing a few avocado slices on a plate and topping with a heap of the fennel-orange mix.
- Top the salad with generous shavings of Parmesan cheese.
Makes four modest or two hearty servings.
Here’s a link back to the post and pictures.
