Bad salads are boring and depressing, great salads on the other hand make me feel happy and energised just by looking at them. I feel that I absorb health just by being in the presence of a sexy salad, so actually eating it makes me feel positively saintly. In fact it’s my duty to accompany such a virtuous dish with some seriously awesome sticky ribs and crispy chicken wings just to redress the cosmic balance (well, thats my excuse anyway).
I was passing my greengrocer’s when I spotted a big bulb of fennel perched plumply on top of a pile of celery, yeah, I wanted that bad boy and 70p later he was mine. The fridge was raided and this salad thrown together. The salad itself was fab but the star of the show was the dressing. I had a bit of fiery honey and balsamic mustard left in the jar from my Good Fork delivery and a bit of Womersley Foods Lime Black Pepper and Lavender Vinegar left that was screaming out for a bit of fennel action.
Salad ingredients:
- 1 fennel bulb and fennel fronds
- 1 large apple
- 8 radishes
- 1 stick celery
- fresh parsley, chopped
- fresh ginger mint, chopped
- poppy seeds
Dressing:
- Mustard with honey and balsamic vinegar (needs to be a really hot mustard)
- Womersley Lime, Black Pepper and Lavender vinegar
- juice of 1 lemon
- glug of lemon infused rapeseed oil
- sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper
My trusty V-Slicer mandolin comes into it’s own for dishes like this, it’s my favourite bit of kitchen kit and I picked it up from a car boot sale for £1 about 7 years ago. Just finely slice and julienne all the salad ingredients. Put all your dressing ingredients together and mix well then coat your salad in the dressing.
It's Not F***ing Rocket Science 
Looks great- like the blog…
Thank you, so easy to make too 🙂
Brussel sprouts are the veg that REALLY tahgut me about how much texture (or the interplay between texture and flavor) plays a role in the things we like.When my twins were born, we committed to making all of their food. Not a single spoonful of baby food ever passed their lips. Our Robot Coupe became our new best friend whatever we ate went into the Robot Coupe for them.I never really like brussel sprouts. Always ate them because they were easy to grow, but never loved them. What I discovered to my great surprise is that when we pureed them for the kids, they were a whole nother kettle of fish, so to speak.Since then, I’ve become quite found of brussel sprout soup (which I make with butter and cream, so it’s hard to go wrong). It doesn’t surprise me to hear you may like them off the mandoline, but not in another prep.Moral of the story: when you think you don’t like something, change its texture and try it again.Thanks for your post.