Fennel, orange salad with hazelnuts

Such a lovely combo. I felt really fancy eating this for staff lunch today! And only takes a few minutes to throw together… Though I had pickled the onions a few days before, and I bought hazelnuts that were already toasted!

Enjoy.

Serves 2

20g hazelnuts, toasted
pink pickled onions (optional)
1 fennel bulb (I used 4 tiny fennel bulbs)
1 orange
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
salt and pepper
a sprig of coriander

1) Make your pink pickled onions. (This is optional - you could just put a few slices of red onions in with fennel & dressing)

2) Toast your hazelnuts (either in a pan on the hob or in the oven - either way make sure they don’t burn)

3) Wash your fennel bulb and slice very very thinly. I don’t bother to remove the “core” - especially with small fennel bulbs it’s often delicious and tender. Put the sliced fennel into a bowl. Save a few of the most tender fennel leaves for garnishing later.

4) Segment your orange. To segment an orange, cut the peel & rind off with a very sharp knife and then cut out the segments (do this over the bowl of fennel to catch any juice). The orange segments can go straight into the bowl with the fennel.

5) Add the olive oil, cider vinegar and salt and pepper to the bowl and stir.

6) Leave for a few minutes (make the rest of your meal perhaps - we had our fennel salad with fish finger sandwiches!)

7) Taste the orange / fennel salad for seasoning. Add more salt, pepper or vinegar if needed.

8) Put the salad into a wide bowl or onto a plate. Top with hazelnuts (halved) and sprigs of coriander and fennel leaves.

This salad is delicious with fish - if you’re baking fish in a parcel in the oven, why stuff your fish with some of the larger fennel leaves for flavour. It would also be great with calamari… or fish & chips!