Go-To Winter Side Salad

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6 simple ingredients

6 simple ingredients

One of the first bloggers I followed on Instagram was Dulanotes - I loved her simple approach to truly yummy food. Back in 2016, she posted this recipe for Pork Scalloppine with Fennel Salsa Verde. Fennel is one of my favourite vegetables - tastes amazing raw with lemon juice and some salt n pepper, but also cooks into a buttery texture similar to cooked cabbage when braised.

I’ve taken Dulanote’s fennel salsa verde recipe and adjusted it over the years to make what I call the best winter side salad around. Winter meals tend to be heavier, especially when entertaining - braised meats, meat wrapped in pastry, etc. The brightness, acidity and crunch of this salad will balance the richest of tourtieres, beef wellingtons, pork ragu pastas and so on. A family favourite, always requested when I go home for the holidays, it also holds up well in the fridge for leftovers thanks to the kale base (albeit a little wetter than when first served).

Make it extra festive: add pomegranate seeds

go-to winter side salad

Yields 4-6 servings

15 mins to prepare

Ingredients:

1 small fennel bulb, plus the fronds

¼ cup of lemon juice (typically juice of 1 lemon)

1 tbsp of capers

1 tbsp of extra-virgin olive oil

2 shallots, finely diced

1 head of kale

Kosher salt

Ground pepper

Method:

  1. Dice the fennel bulb, yielding about ½ cup of fennel and add to a large mixing bowl. Tear off the fronds from the stems, and roughly chop before adding to the bowl.

  2. Roughly chop up the capers to make them smaller bites, and add to the large bowl - it’s ok if some of the brine comes with it

  3. Add your diced shallots, lemon juice, olive oil to the bowl, season with salt and pepper - give it all a good stir to emulsify the oil into the lemon juice

  4. Remove the kale leaves from the stems, rinse, and chiffonade* into 1 cm thick strips  

  5. Add the kale to the bowl and mix with the your (clean) hands, squeezing the dressing into the kale to tenderize it a little bit

  6. Serve and enjoy!


*chiffonade refers to thinly slicing greens/herbs into long thin strips. To get consistent sized strips, I bunch the kale up into a tight ball with my left hand and thinly slice. After I’ve completed this, I chop into thirds the other direction.