It is practically February and I feel as if I have reached the bottom of my bag of winter kitchen tricks. I’ve roasted chickens. I’ve stocked the crockpot. If we have chili again no one’s insides will ever be the same. (I apologize for that extra spicy chili last week. Maybe fresh sliced jalapeños AND a heaping helping of cayenne were a bit much. Mea culpa!) But please, do not show me one more idea for making baked potatoes “fun”! And yes, inevitably, spaghetti sauce leads to lasagna, which leads to more cubic feet of leftovers than the original meal. I feel like I am leading a veritable Sorcerer’s Apprentice kind of life. More and more of the same, the difference is that I am drowning in red sauce!
And there is Project Waistline to consider; I have been trying reclaim mine. Since December Luke (the Wonder Dog) and I have been going out for a couple of walks a day, and I am adding more steps by hopping on that pesky, omnipresent treadmill. It lurks behind me all day in the studio, darkly insinuating that I could just hop on board any time, if I only wanted to get serious about my goals. I am following the David Sedaris route to weight loss, 10,000 steps a day. He is noble and picks up litter, I am lazy and listen to Slate Magazine podcasts.
On the rare days when I actually reach my 10,000 steps, I hate to back slide and inhale garlic bread and copious amounts of pasta, or slather up another spud with even more sour cream. Perhaps winter salads would be a healthier route; better for us and not so predictable and boring as our usual, overly-familiar, yawn-making winter fare.
The Silver Spoon, a best-selling Italian cookbook has an interesting description of fennel: “Fennel bulbs are attractive, tasty, and aid digestion. They are also the leanest vegetable…they are rich in minerals, including calcium, phosphorus, sodium and potassium. Their delicate aroma is reminiscent of aniseed. When buying fennel, bear in mind that the division into male (round) and female (elongated) bulbs has no scientific basis, but it is worth knowing that the former are better for eating raw – on their own or with other types of salad – while the latter are better cooked.” So now you know. Cook on!
Mark Bittmann, one of my household gods, has a lovely recipe for a Fennel and Celery Salad:
Fennel and Celery Salad
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
2 medium fennel bulbs, trimmed, some fronds reserved
3 celery ribs, trimmed
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, more to taste
Salt to taste
1/4 teaspoon black pepper, more to taste
Freshly shaved Parmesan cheese
1. Cut fennel bulbs in quarters lengthwise, discarding outer layer if it is exceedingly tough. Use a mandoline to slice quarters thinly; slice celery equally thin.
2. Put sliced fennel and celery into a large bowl and drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper and toss gently to combine. Top with lots of freshly shaved Parmesan and chopped fennel fronds if you like.
Jamie Oliver, another advocate for healthy eating, has a couple of winter root salads that might help you in your quest for variety without a kabillion comfort calories:
The Best Winter Veg Coleslaw
https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/the-best-winter-veg-coleslaw/
Jamie Oliver
Root Vegetable Salad
https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/root-vegetable-salad/
The Bitten Word has many great winter salad ideas, but the Pickled Radish Vinaigrette was our favorite. I love radishes, which are both practical and available, and reminiscent of summer sunshine. Plus, I enjoyed the little frisson of guilt that I felt when the brioche bits gave me a little taste of forbidden carbs! https://www.thebittenword.com/thebittenword/2012/12/mixed-herb-salad-with-pickled-radish-vinaigrette.html
How about a winter panzanella? The Smitten Kitchen has a very deelish recipe – I’ll just eat around the bread: https://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2006/12/holding-the-gray-salt/ The roasted vegetable are wintery and savory: onions, butternut squash, Brussels sprouts with a smackeral of garlic. Yumsters.
And a bright sparkly valentine bejeweled fennel, orange and pomegranate salad might be your most excellent bet for beating the gray winter: https://honestcooking.com/fennel-salad-with-orange-pomegranate-and-walnuts/
It is simple, yet so sophisticated. Just like we hope to be some day!
“The fennel is beyond every other vegetable, delicious. It greatly resembles in appearance the largest size celery, perfectly white, and there is no vegetable equals it is flavour. It is eaten at dessert, crude, and with, or without dry salt, indeed I preferred it to every other vegetable, or to any fruit.”
-Thomas Jefferson
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