Fennel Tips and Tidbits

We learned a few interesting things about fennel when we researched this vegetable.

In her book, Nigella Fresh: Delicious Flavors on Your Plate All Year Round, Nigella Lawson suggests substituting thin slices of fennel for the cucumber in a typical Greek salad.

We include fennel in our plate of salad ingredients. Since we may not be ready to eat at the same moment, Penny likes to prep and arrange the additions so we can add them to our greens.

She finds it helps the salad stay fresh longer while still adding a cool taste and crunch.

Our favorite vegetable reference book is Deborah Madison’s “Vegetable Literacy” in which she reminds us that fennel is a member of the carrot family and, unless you have an old, tough bulb or want the petals to fall apart, there is no need to remove the core before you slice the bulb.

The online, Real Food Encyclopedia offers these fun facts about fennel:

• “Pliny The Elder, the ancient Roman author famous for his sweeping encyclopedia, ‘Natural History,’ mentions fennel numerous times as a treatment for stomach ache, to care for the ‘stings of serpents,’ for uterus health and as a treatment for a bunch of other ancient Roman maladies.”
• “In some places in the US, fennel has become an invasive species.”
• “Thomas Jefferson once proclaimed Florence fennel his favorite vegetable.”

More on fennel here in part one of our fennel research.

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2018- 2019 Penny Cherubino 
(Adapted for BostonZest from one of our Fresh & Local newspaper columns.)