We've posted a recipe for Orange and Fennel Salad before now, but that was before we had a proper mandoline! When we saw this recipe for fennel salad in Rebecca Gray's book American Artisanal we just had to try it! We went to the market and treasure-hunted for fresh organic fennel, pink Cara Cara oranges, juicy scarlet blood oranges, and artisan-cured black olives.
We couldn't find one ingredient, though...
...turns out that arugula really isn't in season here and no one is carrying it. We substituted a mix of fresh local baby greens.
This is probably our favorite salad - we really can't eat enough of fennel and orange. But the olives added a salty, savory kick - probably a similar role to the crab lump in a memorable salad we ate at Piccolo in Venice Beach. But olives are considerably cheaper and have a charm all their own!
We used some unbelievably meaty and delicious home-cured black olives from our local market.
We also used our new Benriner mandoline! So fun and easy. Look for a full review on Monday.
Orange, Olive, and Fennel Salad
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
1 clove garlic, halved
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/3 cup fresh orange juice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Leaves from 2 bunches arugula
4 navel oranges, peel and pith removed, sliced crosswise
1 large bulb fennel, halved and thinly sliced
½ cup pitted oil-curred black olives
Rub a large salad bowl several times with the cut surface of the garlic clove; discard garlic. In a bowl, whisk the oil, orange juice, and salt and pepper.
Add the argula to the bowl and toss with the dressing; transfer the arugula to chilled serving dishes. Add the oranges, fennel, and olives to the bowl with the dressing; gently toss them to coat lightly with dressing and arrange over the arugula on the plates. Sprinkle with additional salt and pepper and serve immediately.
Recipe © American Artisanal by Rebecca Gray, Rizzoli New York, 2008. Used with permission.
(Images: Faith Hopler)
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
This looks awesome, and I hope to try it asap. A few days ago I made a salad with fennel, oranges, olives, and beets from a highly reviewed Epicurious recipe. We totally hated it, and it looked terrible, and it's moping in the fridge until I can bear to throw it out.
Love beets citrus, love fennel citrus, not so much beets fennel citrus.
But this has so many of my favorite things (love arugula).
view renata's profile
oh my, this is a beautiful dish!
do you think this could be done by caramelizing the fennel first? would it change the texture/taste too much? dh is allergic to onions (darn his allergies!) so gotta work around it somehow.
view selena's profile
Woops, my "plus" symbols didn't show up (beets and citrus, fennel and citrus, not all 3 together)
view renata's profile
sounds delicious - might want to clean up the typos at the end of the 2nd paragraph ("pperp") and beginning of the 3rd paragraph (woops!)
view unvacuous's profile
Ha! Thanks unvacuous.
view faith's profile
I made this yesterday with fennel and arugula from the farmers market. I was disappointed in my fennel, as it had less flavor than the stuff I buy at the grocery store. Overall it was a good salad but I think I would tinker with the dressing. Maybe it was my oranges, but I thought it could be a little brighter or more acidic. It was good though. and definitely a combination to remember. I'll put my pic up on the cure flickr page.
view renata's profile