As the weeks move towards spring, sunshine and warmer weather, I fancied putting together a zesty, refreshing accompaniment for my lunchtime meal.
Lunches most days are salad or soup. These never become mundane or boring as I am always looking for ideas and inspiration to add colour, flavour and texture.
I’ve previously combined orange and fennel, but this recipe works really well. I combined ingredients from a couple of recipes I found to come up with my own recipe.
The pecans add some protein. I served it alongside a tempura coated oven baked chicken fillet and a fairly plain green salad (lettuce, cucumber, celery, watercress).
It was a little fiddly to prepare, but good food is always worth the additional time and effort!
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Fennel, Orange and Pecan Salad – 270 calories
Preparation Time: 20 mins
Cooking Time: N/A
Serves: 2
Calories per serving: 270
Ingredients
Fennel, Bulb 1 Medium Bulb/300g
Blood Oranges 1 Orange/140g
Olive Oil, Extra Virgin 1 Tbsp/15ml
Orange Juice, Freshly Squeezed 20ml
Sumac, Ground ¼ Tsp/0.5g
Pecan Nuts 40g
Mustard, Wholegrain 1 Tsp/5g
Method:
Cut the core from the fennel and shred finely with a julienne cutter.
Carefully cut the peel and pith from the orange. Do this by cutting a slice off the top and bottom of the orange to provide a flat surface, then slice carefully downwards with a sharp knife removing the skin and pith. Try to remove as much pith as possible as this is quite bitter.
Cut the orange into segments and then each segment into three. Combine the orange pieces with the fennel shavings. Sprinkle over the sumac. Add the salt and pepper.
Combine the olive oil, mustard and the juice of half an orange. This is the dressing. Pour the dressing over the fennel and orange and stir gently to combine.
Roughly chop the pecans and sprinkle over the salad.
Nutrition Data Per Serving
Calories (kcal) 270
Protein (g) 4.2
Carbohydrate (g) 14.3
Fat (g) 21.7
Fibre (g) 6.4
Fruit & Veg 2.8
