Tomato Salad With Fennel and Apple

Salads are popular additions to meals. Or, with protein, they can serve as nutritious stand-alone dishes. Salads are a fun food category that contain a wide variety of ingredients. While lettuce is generally a star ingredient, some great recipes have no lettuce at all. To add intrigue to your meal, serve our delicious tomato salad with fennel and apple for a tasty change of pace!

Recipe for tomato salad with fennel and apple

Serves four Ingredients:

• 1 small fennel bulb, thinly sliced (reserve fennel fronds to garnish)
• 2 large beefsteak tomatoes, cut into wedges
• 1 large red delicious apple, cored and quartered
• 1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and sliced
• 4 Tablespoons high-quality olive oil
• 2 Tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
• Kosher salt
• Cracked black pepper

Directions: Place fennel, tomatoes, apple, and cucumber in a large serving bowl. In a small separate bowl, mix the olive oil, lemon juice and mustard together. Season with salt and pepper. Pour dressing over the salad; toss gently to coat. Snip the fennel fronds over the top to garnish.

Four fennel questions for the chef:

• Where is fennel grown? Fennel is native to the Mediterranean region and some parts of Asia. Now, it is widely cultivated around the world in temperate climates. Fennel grows across a wide range of USDA hardiness zones, with most U.S. grown Florence fennel coming from California and Arizona.
• What does fennel taste like? Fennel has a mild anise or licorice flavor. It can be sweetened and enhanced depending upon how it is cooked.
• How can one sweeten fennel? They may be sweetened through the cooking process. Food Network explains, when diced and sauteed with onions as one of the first steps when making a soup or stew, fennel becomes sweet.
• What are fennel fronds? Fennel fronds are the frilly green parts that grow out of the fennel bulb. They look a bit like dill. Bon Appetite describes their texture as light and feathery. They uniquely share, “If you tickled someone with fennel fronds, they’d probably giggle. And then tell you to stop.”

Interesting tidbits: Fennel is sometimes used as a flavoring in natural toothpastes as many people enjoy the taste. Fennel was so loved by Thomas Jefferson that he once proclaimed Florence fennel his favorite vegetable! Stay tuned for more salad recipes coming this month!