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Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Shaved Fennel Salad with Dill and Feta

My garden is not doing so well, other than the zucchini, which of course is growing like gang busters! The garden is fixable, so stay tuned on that front, As for the zucchini, I was thrilled to find a recent post at 101 Cookbooks that was a totally different spin on a fresh zucchini salad and turned out to be just as delicious as anticipated!

Heidi of 101 Cookbooks obviously used a mandoline to shave the fennel and zucchini paper thin; my mandoline leaves much to be desired, so my knife skills had to do. While my veggies were not as transparent (check out her photos versus mine), the dish was still fantastic.

The trick is allowing the fennel, dill and zucchini to marinate in the lemon juice, salt and olive oil for at least an hour so that the veggies wilt a bit and soak up some of the dill flavor. Then toss in the rest of the ingredients and dig in. It is definitely my new favorite way to eat zucchini! 

I will be sending this to Rachel of the Crispy Cook for Weekend Herb Blogging.

Shaved Fennel Salad with Dill and Feta
(from 101 Cookbooks)
(Serves 5-6)

2 medium zucchini, sliced as thinly as possible in rounds
1 large fennel, sliced as thinly as possible (Cut fennel in half and cut with flat side down)
1 cup fresh dill, chopped
1/3 cup lemon juice (about 3 lemons)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
black pepper
1/3 cup feta, crumbled
2 cups arugula
1 tablespoon pine nuts, toasted or almond, chopped

Combine zucchini, fennel, dill, lemon juice, olive oil and salt in a bowl and set aside to marinate for 1 hour. When ready to serve salad, place arugula on large serving platter and spoon vegetables on top. Sprinkle on feta and nuts and dress with vinaigrette from bowl. Adjust for salt and pepper and serve.

Hugs!

Recipes currently inspiring me:

Green Pea Soup at 101 Cookbooks
Shrimp, Couscous, Feta and Herb Salad at The Perfect Pantry
Cherry Lambic Crisps at Stacey Snacks

2 comments:

Rachel said...

This looks so summery and refreshing. Thanks for sending it over to Weekend Herb Blogging this week.

On the zucchini front, I have discovered the pleasures of cooking the male squash blossoms (they are the ones without a bulge or mini zucchini at their base and won't turn into a full-bore zuke anyway, so you can harvest them guilt-free). I stuff them with some goat cheese with chopped fresh herbs, spray them with cooking spray and then pop them into my toaster oven for 5-10 minutes until the cheese is melted and the tops are browned. Heavenly.

Simona said...

Your recipe reminded me that as a kid I liked eating leftover fennel salad, hours after it had been originally tossed. I have never had raw zucchini with fennel: it sounds like a nice combination.