Roasted Fennel Orange and Onion Salad

This beautiful roasted salad is the perfect antidote to the winter doldrums.  Its lightness and simplicity provide a much needed change from the overly luxe cuisine that typically marks our annual gauntlet of holiday indulgence.  It also happens to be gluten free and vegan, aside from featuring three of our seasonal favorites—fennel, red onions and oranges.  This recipe is inspired by a dish found in Molly Stevens’ fantastic cookbook All About Roasting:  A New Approach to a Classic Art, which if you don’t own a copy, you are missing out in a big way.

Part manual, part history lesson and packed with recipes and photos that will more than likely result in the book sustaining some serious drool-related water damage, it is a must-have for any home cook and/or food nerd. (Guilty and guilty, btw.)  Whereas most cookbooks encourage you to wear an apron in the kitchen, this one requires a cape.  You’ll be the new superhero of Sunday dinner.  You need look no further than this recipe for proof of that.

It plays on the classic fennel and orange combination, but the real magic comes from the technique of roasting everything together, saving time and cleanup, and you all know by now how much we love that.  With four ingredients (six if you count the salt and pepper), this is an exercise in simplicity.

Stevens does all of the legwork here, providing from some fairly precise slicing instructions for the fennel, onion, and oranges to ensure that everything cooks thoroughly and evenly, streamlining the process and rendering the dish fairly hands-off once this step is complete.  Another glorious result of roasting everything together is that the dish practically dresses itself, bypassing the need for a separate vinaigrette.

The only real “adjustment” that was made for our version was to swap out the navel oranges in the original recipe for those gorgeous, juicy blood oranges that we await each year with bated breath.  This imparts an already spectacular dish with even deeper flavors and colors.  As the oranges roast, they release their juices, sweetening the fennel and onions, which caramelize evenly and create a glaze that bathes everything in fantastic flavors.  If that’s not enough for you, don’t forget that you have those reserved orange ends for an extra spritz of sweet tart juice—and a little extra dash of salt and pepper is always a good thing in our book.

You might also notice that the citrus peels and pith are left intact.  If you are concerned about the notoriously bitter pith, rest easy.  The roasting mellows  it considerably, and any residual bitterness is actually a wonderful complement to the caramel notes of the fennel and onion and concentrated, bright sweetness of the orange pulp.

This is equally good served cold or at room temperature, and while it functions wonderfully as a starter or a colorful side dish, we can’t help but dream about some grilled lamb chops served over a bed of this beautiful salad.

Actually, this would make an impressive base for just about any roasted, baked or grilled meat, poultry or fish.  Actually, now that we think of it, this salad would be museum-worthy if topped with sea scallops cooked to caramelized perfection in a pan of brown butter.  So much for eating “light.”  *sigh*

Adapted from All About Roasting: A New Approach to a Classic Art
via Food52.

Roasted Fennel Orange and Onion Salad

 

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Ingredients

• 1 large or 2 small fennel bulbs (about 1 pound untrimmed)
• 1 medium red onion
• 1 small blood orange, scrubbed
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Instructions

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat to 400 degrees F ( Line a heavy-duty rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Trim the fronds from the fennel. Stand a bulb on its base on the cutting board and cut it in half lengthwise, cutting from the core end to the stem end. Use a paring knife to remove most of the core from each half (no need to get it all out). Lay each half flat on the cutting surface and cut crosswise into ¼-inch-thick crescent-shaped slices. Toss onto the baking sheet and repeat with the second fennel bulb if you have two.
3. Cut the onion in half, cutting from root to stem end. Peel and remove the root end from both halves. Slice the onion halves crosswise into ¼-inch-thick half-moons and add to the fennel.
4. Next, slice about 1½ inches off each end of the orange and reserve (you'll use these later to squeeze over the salad). Stand the orange up on one cut end and cut it lengthwise in half, and then cut each half lengthwise in half again, leaving you with 4 pieces. Arrange each quarter with cut side down and slice crosswise into ¼-inch-thick quarter-moon-shaped pieces.
5. Add the orange to the fennel and onion. Drizzle the olive oil on top and season well with salt and plenty of pepper. Toss to coat and arrange as best you can in an even layer on the baking sheet.
6. Roast, stirring with a spatula after 15 minutes to ensure even cooking and again every 10 minutes or so. The vegetables close to the edge of the pan will brown more quickly than those in the center, so stirring and then shaking the pan to restore an even layer helps everything cook at the same rate. Continue roasting until the vegetables and orange are tender and the outer edges are beginning to caramelize, 25 to 45 minutes.
7. Transfer to a serving dish. Let cool for at least 15 minutes or to room temperature. Squeeze the juice from one of the reserved orange ends over the salad and taste. Add a pinch of salt, drizzle with a little olive oil and serve warm or at room temperature.

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