Fennel is one of our favourite herbs to cook with. Partly because it’s delicious, and partly because it grows extremely well all year round (in our climate anyway). The aniseed tones of fennel aren’t for everyone, but as someone who doesn’t normally care for aniseed, I can say that in the right recipe, the flavour is subtle and enhances the meal significantly.
Since fennel is a regular feature in our veggie boxes, at our farm gate stall, and on our weekly stock list, we thought we would share some of our favourite (and super simple) recipes that feature this versatile herb.
Fennel Fish and Potatoes
Ingredients (serves 2):
1 lemon
1 bunch fennel leaf
1 fennel bulb/stems
3 cloves garlic
4 potatoes
200g butter
2 tbsp olive oil
2 portions of fish fillet / chicken breast / lamb cutlet
Salt and pepper
Preparation:
1. Slice the fennel bulb or stems, slice garlic, and place both in a frypan with butter.
2. Boil potatoes until ¾ cooked.
3. Marinade the meat in chopped fennel leaf and olive oil.
4. Slowly fry the fennel bulb/stems and garlic in the butter on a low heat. When fully cooked, add chopped potatoes and continue to fry until potatoes are cooked. Serve this onto plates.
5. In the same pan (uncleaned) cook fish or other meat until desired.
6. Season everything and serve with chopped fresh fennel leaf and lettuce. Squeeze a lemon over the meal to finish.
Roasted Chicken with Fennel
This is a pretty straight forward one: take a bunch of fennel leaf and some chopped garlic, and use as stuffing in a whole chicken. Roast as you would normally roast a chicken, and serve with roasted vegetables (season these with chopped fennel for extra flavour), or a side of your choice (like home made garlic bread!).
Indian Roast Vegetables
Ingredients:
Potatoes
Baby carrots
Baby beets
Baby celery
Fennel leaf and bulb/stems
Garam Masala powder
Coriander
Yoghurt
Preparation:
Roast the potatoes, baby carrots, baby beets, and fennel bulb/stems as you would roast vegetables normally (add any additional vegetables of your choosing). When roasted, toss the vegetables with garam masala, coriander, chopped fennel leaf, and baby celery. Serve with plain yoghurt.
Steak with Fennel Mash
Add chopped fennel leaf and a generous amount of butter to your regular mashed potatoes (remember, there is no such thing as ‘too much butter’), combine well. Serve with steak or an alternative meat of your choosing.
You can also make any of these dishes vegetarian.
Fennel can be pickled, tossed in a salad, used in soups, grilled, or braised. And that’s one of it’s great qualities: the leaf can be used like any other herb, but you’ve also got the bulb or stems for a more powerful fennel experience.
If you’re inundated with fennel in your garden, or you’ve seen it around and wondered how it could be used in cooking, we hope this post has sparked some ideas. At the very least, we hope this demonstrates how easy it is to incorporate fennel into practically any meal you can think of.
