Shaved Fennel Apple Salad with Manchego

*Post by Angela.

My mom is a genius in the kitchen (and pretty much everywhere else). She can taste something at a restaurant and make it a home just as well, if not better. I've got a long way to go before I get there, but every once in awhile I'll order something out that I just have to make at home. A couple of weeks ago, I wanted to recreate one of our favorite dishes from our meal at Jaleo, the light and refreshing  fennel and apple salad. I poked around on the internets and found this recipe, and while it wasn't exactly like what we had, it was close enough. And I got to change the things I didn't love about the original (namely, that the cheese was cut into batons, which I thought was not the best way to distribute the salty deliciousness of the cheese throughout the dish).

 

List of ingredients for the salad:

• 2 tbsp fennel fronds
• 2 tbsp chives
• 2 tbsp tarragon
• 1/8 cup lemon juice
• 1/8 cup sherry vinegar
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 2 Granny Smith Apples, thinly sliced
• 2 bulbs fennel, thinly sliced
• 4 oz Manchego cheese, shredded
• 1/2 cup roasted walnuts

These are fennel bulbs with the fronds still on. For the longest time, I didn't realize you could use fennel stalks/fronds and would chop 'em off and throw 'em out, all willy nilly (willy nilly, I tell you!). For this dish, I pulled the fronds off, stripped them and finely chopped up about 2 tbsp, along with 2 tbsp each of chives and tarragon.

 

I whisked together the chopped herbs with the lemon juice, vinegar, and olive oil, added the salt and pepper, and put it in the fridge so that the flavors could fully meld, about an hour.

 

I cored the apples, and thinly sliced them - along with the fennel bulbs - with my mandolin, using the thinnest setting, then tossed them in the dressing. In the process, I managed to take off a huge chunk of my thumb, so you can all reset the "Angela Goes Without Injuring Herself While Using The Mandolin" counter.

 

I topped the salad with the shredded cheese and the walnuts. When it's hot out, there's nothing better than the refreshing crunch of fennel, and the apple both balanced out and complemented the tartness of the dressing. While there may have been a couple of ingredients I missed, it was close enough and a perfect beginning for a summer meal. I think my mom would approve, too.

Comments

[Calypso]

Looks great. At this point, though, can we even consider anything that goes through that mandolin to be vegetarian? I feel like the thing is now more Angela than Mandolin. That's right, I'm getting all "The Mangler" up in this comment.

[Angela]

That...is a good point. Meaty.