Fennel for yourself

Salad for lunch every day can get very boring and can very quickly derail even the best attempts to diet. I myself have been getting very tired of the usual iceberg/romaine lettuce with onion tomato and cucumber. I saw this recipe for a variation on salads on Giada DiLaurentis' Show on the Food Network. The episode was focusing on light and fresh meals. The salad definitely had an interesting twist I had never tried before so I decided to give it a shot. Giada's recipe can be found on the Food Network website.

The most important and most expensive part of this salad was by far the Fennel bulb. Oh boy was that an ordeal. It never occurred to me that fennel bulbs would not be standard fare for every grocery store (a testament to how spoiled I was in terms of my grocery expectations as a child). After walking (gotta love NY) to 3 local produce markets and 2 grocery store chains, I finally found fennel bulbs at Key Foods. My quest of course came at a hefty price (by student budget standards).

The fennel bulbs were $2.65 per lb. and since I bought two that brought me to a whopping $4. I suppose I can't complain too much since my pallate refused to go another day on iceberg lettuce with onions and tomatoes, and a good salad from the local delis run me about $6-9 a bowl. These fennel bulbs will surely last me much longer than one salad bowl.

Down to the salad. The first thing I did was caramelize the onions. I am only making this recipe for one person since its just me and my lonesome self eating lunch today (In all fairness my boyfriend is being a very good med student and studying the day away). So I sliced up one large white onion. NOTE: If you are just making this for yourself, still use a whole large onion because the onion will reduce down significantly once caramelized. HELPFUL HINT: If the onions is starting to make you cry, quickly rinse the onion under some water to reduce the burning.

In a large stainless steel skillet, heat 1-1.5 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Add the sliced onion, 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, 2 pinches of kosher salt and 1 pinch of ground black pepper. PERSONAL NOTE: Inhaling the cooking balsamic vinegar will burn the insides of your nostrils...trust me). Cook the onions, stirring occasionally until they are a deep golden brown (for me this took a little over 20 minutes). FUN VARIATION: Instead of just using white onions, throw in a few slices of shallot to caramelize with it. The added flavor dimension is AMAZING. Once the onions are a deep brown color set the onions aside to cool for 5-10 minutes.

Giada's recipe includes a recipe for dressing. But if you read my previous blog on the beet salad, you already have made pretty much the exact same dressing, I make a bunch of it and save it for all my salads because it is muted enough to allow the salad's flavor's to shine without overpowering it.

For the salad, Peel and trim the ends of a grapefruit (I only used half for this salad and saved the other half for a snack latter with some splenda sprinkled on top yummm). When you peel the grapefruit be sure to get all of the white rind off because that is intensely bitter and will ruin the salad. Use a paring knife along the membrane on both sides of each segment, free the segments and add them to the salad bowl. NOTE: Cut the segments over the bowl you are going to use for the salad bowl so the excess juices drop into the bowl adding more flavor to the salad.

Next trim and rinse the fennel bulb, cut it in half. Save one half for a later salad or dish. Thinly slice the other half and add it to the salad bowl. NOTE: I happen to be a huge fan of black licorice and old fashioned root beer so I LOVE LOVE LOVE fennel. I realize however that most of the rest of the world does not like those flavors.If you really can't stand the taste of black licorice, consider skipping the fennel.

Peel and thinly slice the cucumber. The cucumber I bought was quite large so I only used half of it and saved the other half for some other time. Finely slice one scallion (mostly the green part if you don't want the strong oniony flavor of the white part). Add these to the bowl. Add any type of lettuce or leafy green you want to the salad. Giada used romaine lettuce, I however used a really nice pre-packeaged mixed herb salad. Toss it all together with the dressing (I used about 1 tablespoon). Then add on top, the caramelized onion and enjoy!!

MOMENT OF TRUTH: Ok, Ok, I know I said that if you are cooking for one to still use a whole white onion. Well I ended up feeling a little overwhelmed by the amount of onions so I just used half and saved the other half for tomorrow's salad.

Nutrition Facts: (without dressing)

grams:468; calories: 187; fat: 7g; saturated fat: 1g; sodium: 101.5mg; fiber: 6.5g; sugar: 5g; carbs: 28.5g; protein: 4.5g