Raid the Fridge Fridays Christmas edition: Orange and Fennel Salad

A necessary refresh before the New Year

Before the week of Christmas officially begins, it appears to go on for an indefinite length of time - days stretch yawningly before you and you make plans and vague promises for activities, meetings and appointments.

Then, somewhere between the 23rd and the 31st December time does the dirty on you. The days get stirred together in this big Christmas pot, maybe a few aunts, uncles and cousins are thrown in, but somehow, by the time the 30th December rolls around, you have no memory of what exactly you’ve be doing all week except there’s a finished puzzle sitting on the floor so you suppose you did that at some point.

Meanwhile, it doesn’t help that you’re living each day in a cheese-and-cold-meats stupor - Roxy Music said love is the drug, but I beg to differ, Christmas is the drug I’m thinking of.

What we all need is a regroup, a little shake up to get our heads on straight to walk into that new year facing the right direction, and no I’m not thinking of your tax return although that certainly helps to bring us all back to reality. Instead, I’d prefer something edible because that is so much more fun than going over bank statements.

Funnily enough, I saw a recipe eerily similar to this one on my Substack newsfeed earlier - clearly I’m not the only one who’s craving fresh citrus and crunchy raw vegetables after all the aforementioned cheese and cold meats.

In my opinion, fennel is completely underrated. People seem to be put off by the aniseed-y flavour, and I can certainly sympathise - liquorice, Sambuca, pastis are all shudder-inducing. Fennel on the other hand is crisp and fresh and the flavour is so light, especially when served with other ingredients, you barely notice it.

One of my favourite salads is fennel drizzled in olive oil, lemon juice and flaky salt, and tossed together with a little shaved Parmesan. The fennel perfectly balances the rich Parmesan and the simple dressing seemingly mutes the aniseed - which is exactly the same in this orange and fennel salad (sans Parmesan).

Combine slivers of fennel with segmented orange and finely sliced shallot, sprinkle with pecans and fresh thyme leaves, maybe some sesame seeds too, and you have a juicy, crisp winter’s salad to refresh this Christmas soup of blended days.

Winter Fennel and Orange Salad

Weights and measures aren’t really necessary for a salad, add as much or as little of each ingredient as you like.

Prep Time: 20 mins

Course: Appetizer, Lunch, Salad, Snack, Starter

Keyword: orange, fennel, pecans, thyme, shallot, olive oil

Servings: 2

Author: Adapted from Most Hungry’s recipe

Ingredients

• 1 bulb of fennel

• 1 shallot

• 1 orange

• A couple of handfuls of pecans

• 2-3 sprigs of fresh thyme

• Sesame seeds

• Olive oil

• Juice of ¼ a lemon

• Flaky salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

• Remove the outer layers of the fennel and discard. Set aside any fennel fronds for decoration. Finely slice the rest of the fennel and add it to a mixing bowl.

• Finely slice the shallot into rings and add to the bowl.

• Slice away the orange peel using a small sharp knife and segment the fruit - hold the orange in your hand over the bowl and, using the small knife, cut between the pith at each segment. The segments and juice will fall into the bowl below. When you’re finished, discard the leftover pith but first, squeeze out any extra juice.

• Break the pecans up into chunks and add them to the salad, along with most of the shredded thyme leaves, salt and some olive oil. Taste for seasoning and add lemon juice if you wish.

• Pile the salad onto two plates and sprinkle with sesame seeds, leftover thyme leaves, fennel fronds and some more salt and some black pepper.