Fennel and Root Vegetable Spring Salad
Thin and crisp slices of fennel and root vegetables topped with lots of fresh herbs and a bright lemon vinaigrette. This salad hits all the right notes for what I crave in spring- no oven needed, light and tangy flavors, and lots of fresh herbs.
Still Root Vegetable Season
I try to prioritize eating local seasonal produce, but April is always the most challenging for me. In Upstate New York, our spring vegetables- peas, asparagus, snap peas, lettuce, sugar snap peas, spring greens, spring onions- don’t come in until May or even June. A trip to the local’s farmer’s market in April yields mostly root vegetables, which I’ve been eating for the last 6 months. So with this in mind, I set out to make a fresh and light spring salad out of ever present root vegetables.
Ingredients for Spring Root Vegetable Salad
- Fennel– irresistible anise-like flavor and crunch
- Other Root Vegetables– use a mix of carrots, radishes, turnips, beets, or kohlrabi to flavor and visual variety to the salad. I used a colorful mix of watermelon radishes, purple daikon radishes, chioggia beets, and carrots.
- Parsley– fresh flavor and adds pops green
- Lemon– bright and tangy; a classic Italian pairing with fennel
- Salt– brings water out of the root vegetables, highlights the lemon and fennel flavors
- Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
- Parmesan Cheese (optional)
Root vegetables
Root vegetables are underground food storage organs. Many of what we think of as root vegetables are not actually roots, botanically speaking. Though these structures have different developmental origins, they share the same function of storing carbohydrates and nutrients over winter for the plants to use when they start growing again in the spring.
Modified Stems
| Bulbs | Onion, Garlic, Fennel | Short stem with fleshy leaves/scales layering around the central undeveloped plant shoot |
| Corms | Water Chestnut, Taro | Short vertical and enlarged stem that is made up of solid tissue (unlike bulbs which are layered) |
| Rhizomes | Ginger, Turmeric | Underground plant stem that sends out roots and shoots, rhizome grows horizontally and shoots grow vertically up from rhizome. |
| Tuberous Stems | Potatoes, Sunchokes | Enlarged part of a rhizome |
True Roots
| Tuberous Roots | Sweet Potato, Yam, Yucca | Thickened and enlarged lateral root |
| Taproots | Beets, Carrots, Parsnips, Rutabaga, Turnip, Kohlrabi, Celeriac, Radish, Parsnip | A large central root, usually straight and thickened that grows directly downwards, smaller roots grow off taproot |
Carrot Family
The carrot family (Apiaceae) contains many culinary species including carrot, fennel, parsnip, dill, caraway, cilantro, cumin, parsley, and celery. There are also many poisonous (poison hemlock, water hemlock, spotted cowbane) and phototoxic (giant hogweed, cow parsnip) species. Phototoxic plants contain furanocoumarins, which the plants produce as a defense mechanism against insects, mammals, and fungi. In humans, furanocoumarins bond to our skin cells and make skin extremely sensitive to sunlight, which can lead to serious skin inflammation.
One of the defining characteristics of the carrot family is they all produce umbrella shaped flowers (called umbels). Their tiny flowers attract ladybugs, parasitic wasps, and parasitic flys, and these insects will fed on pests on neighboring plants. Because of this, nearly all cultivated Apiaceae species are helpful companion plants to have in the garden. Black swallowtail butterflies fed and lay eggs on Apiaceae plants- you’ll often see these caterpillars in the garden on dill plants.
More spring recipes
- Beet and Quinoa Detox Salad
- Spring Farmer’s Market Farro Bowl
- Spring Tonic Greens Salad
- The BEST Kale Salad with Radicchio and Farro
Fennel and Root Vegetable Spring Salad
Equipment
- mandoline
Ingredients
- 2 fennel bulbs trimmed and cored, young fronds reserved
- 1 lb mixed root vegetables trimmed and tough peels removed
- ½ c flat leaf parsley
- zest and juice from 1 lemon
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp fine sea salt
- ¼ c shaved parmesan cheese optional
Instructions
- Thinly slice vegetables with a mandoline. If desired, slice any large rounds into strips. Transfer vegetables to a large salad bowl. Chop parsley and reserved fennel fronds, and add to salad bowl along with lemon zest and juice, olive oil, and salt. Toss well to mix and then sprinkle parmesan on top, if using.