Fennel And Orange Salad With Champagne Vinaigrette

This is one of the best salad recipes.  It is crisp, crunchy, fruity and elegant with the champagne vinegar dressing.  

After the holidays and the overindulging, my body craves something clean, crunchy, and healthy.  But I get tired of eating leafy, green salads every day. This salad will excite your tastebuds and nourish your body with the crunchy, fresh, and clean food it’s craving.

The best salad. A bowl of shaved fennel, radish, red onion, and orange dressed with a champagne vinaigrette.

WHAT IS FENNEL?

Fennel is a vegetable that looks like an onion that grew a few celery stalks and then blossomed into a bouquet of dill weed on top.

Fennel has a crisp, crunchy, bright anise-like flavor.  It doesn’t really taste like licorice when eaten raw. The flavor is described as mildly perfumy.  

Fennel is one of those under-utilized vegetables that people either don’t know about or what to do with it or are afraid of the ‘licorice’ taste.  I would suggest to just try it. It is such a fresh, bright flavor.

The entire fennel can be used – from the bulb and stalks to the seeds and the fronds.

The best salad. A bowl of shaved fennel, radish, red onion, and orange dressed with a champagne vinaigrette.

WHAT EQUIPMENT IS USED TO MAKE THE BEST SALAD RECIPE

In the mood for more salad recipes?  Here are a few suggestions:

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FENNEL AND ORANGE SALAD WITH CHAMPAGNE VINAIGRETTE

This recipe deserves to be called “The Best Salad Recipe”.  It is crunchy, fresh, sweet, and savory all in one healthy, delicious bowl.

  • Author: Eats By The Beach
  • Prep Time: 25 minutes
  • Total Time: 25 minutes
  • Yield: Serves 4
  • Category: Starter-Salad
  • Cuisine: Italian

Ingredients

4 tablespoons Champagne vinegar

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

¼  teaspoon salt

2  teaspoons sugar

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

2 fennel bulbs with green fronds intact

1 orange 

¼ small red onion, finely sliced crosswise

½ cup radishes, thinly sliced

Sea salt, to taste

Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

In a small bowl combine vinegar, mustard, salt, and sugar and mix well. Add olive oil in a thin drizzle while whisking it into the vinegar to help emulsify.  Set aside.

Using a sharp knife, cut the tops off of the fennel.  Pick about ⅓ cup of the green fennel fronds from the tops and chop them into small bits.  Set aside.

Halve the fennel bulbs lengthwise.  Remove any tough outer layers. Slice the fennel lengthwise as thinly as possible.  It is easiest to use either a mandoline or your food processor. Place the sliced fennel into a large salad bowl.

Slice the skin and white pith from the orange.  Cut out the segments of orange around the membranes and add them to the bowl.  If you can do the cuts over the salad bowl to catch the juice, it adds to the sweetness of the salad.

Thinly slice the red onion and radishes and add them to the salad bowl.

Add the chopped fennel fronds.

Lightly toss the vegetables to mix.

Whisk the dressing a final time and drizzle over the vegetables.  Toss lightly until all the vegetables are coated with the dressing.  

Taste for seasonings and add additional salt and pepper if needed.

Serve chilled or at room temperature.

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