Orange, Red Onion, Fennel, Carrot & Pomegranate Salad

This is going to be a short no-recipe post for an Orange, Red Onion, Fennel, Carrot & Pomegranate Salad. Making a simple salad is no rocket science. In the case of this salad, it’s no big deal at all. So this post comes without a recipe, but just some basic directions and the ingredients.

The name, Orange, Red Onion, Fennel, Carrot & Pomegranate Salad, pretty much tells you what the main ingredients in the salad are. Sometime, about a month back, I was at the supermarket looking through the vegetables and fruit. I saw some good looking fennel and picked a couple. Fresh fennel is not something I see much locally so I’ve never used it before.

I had just received a copy of Jamie’s cookbook Orange Appeal. One of the recipes was for a salad with fresh fennel, oranges, carrot and red onion with a honey-orange dressing. This seemed a good way to start my experiments with fresh fennel. I cut off the top part of it for the salad and planted the bottom part of the bulb in a pot. I’m happy to say it took root and is doing well so far.

Getting back to the salad….. I quote Jamie from her book, “Sweet, fruity orange has a natural affinity for both fennel, with its slightly licorice flavor, and tangy red onions…… carrot… adds a bit more sweetness to complement the kick of the onion and fennel while increasing the satisfying crunch.” Once you’ve had this salad, you know that is definitely true, and the sort of thing I look for in a salad. I believe the idea of orange in a salad comes from Morocco. There they serve it with orange blossom water cinnamon, as a light dessert actually.

I made some small changes to Jamie’s salad recipe. I added some stuff, and left out some. To see the original recipe please see page 55 of Jamie Schler’s cookbook Orange Appeal.

You can make it a single large salad to serve or plate it individually. Two oranges, a fennel bulb, a medium carrot and red onion, and a small pomegranate should be enough to serve four on the side or two as a main. You will also need olive oil, lime juice, honey, orange zest, red chilli flakes/ crushed pepper, a little coriander powder, salt and orange juice from the sliced oranges. These are to make the dressing. You can also add sliced and toasted almonds to the mix if you like. If you do, sprinkle it over the salad as a garnish.

Peel the oranges, removing the pith completely, and slice thinly. Collect the juice that collects and keep for the dressing. Arrange as the bottom most layer on the salad plate. Trim the fennel removing the bottom and tough parts. Slice and also keep the feathery fennel fronds for garnishing. Cut the carrot into thin sticks, and slice the onion thin. Arrange this over the orange slices. Finally sprinkle the pomegranate over this.

Mix together the ingredients for the dressing, adding and adjusting to your taste. You’ll need about a 1/4 tsp of the coriander powder or you can leave it out. Pour the dressing over the salad. Garnish with the fennel fronds and serve. Enjoy!