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A beautiful, delicious, seasonal salad - the perfect way to add a fresh touch to all those winter, comfort meals!
A few weeks ago, we met our son and daughter-in-law at Whole Foods for a Sunday brunch. There was a wonderful, almost dizzying spread to choose from, including pizzas, salads, breads, soups, sandwiches, and a hot bar with lots of breakfast, lunch and dinner options. We enjoyed checking it all out and making our choices. It's funny, with all that variety, there was one thing that really captured my fancy.
Lindsay and I noticed it about the same time. "Look at that salad!", she said. I was was already staring at it. It was so pretty and it enticed us both. At first, we thought it was simply green apples and arugula. Then we noticed the little name card; Apple-Fennel Salad. "Oh, that sounds delicious" I said. Lindsay and I both proceeded to fill up little containers and added it to our selections.
We both loved the salad. It was delicious, simple and fresh tasting. Of course, I went home thinking about it. And you might be guessing what I did the next day. Yup, I picked up a bag of pretty arugula, a tart Granny Smith apple and a fennel bulb at the market and made up my own version of the wonderful salad. Honestly, I have no idea what type of dressing was used on the Whole Foods salad. I used a simple lemon-olive oil dressing with a drizzle of honey. A handful of sweet golden raisins complement the tart apples and roughly chopped fennel fronds add a bit of pretty texture.
This Granny Smith and Fennel Arugula Salad is a wonderful, fresh side for any wintery comfort dinner. It also makes a lovely meal, topped with roasted salmon or grilled, pan-seared or rotisserie chicken. We love it as a accompaniment to grilled sandwiches too.
If you're visiting Whole Foods and you notice two women exclaiming over the offerings, it's probably me and my sidekick, Lindsay. Stop and say hello, we'd love to meet you!
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Granny Smith and Fennel Arugula Salad
Ingredients
- For the salad:
- ⅓ cup golden raisins
- 2 teaspoons apple juice or water
- 5 ounce bag baby arugula
- 1 medium Granny Smith apple, halved, cored and thinnly sliced
- ½ medium fennel bulb, thinly sliced
- ½ cup roughly chopped fennel fronds, optional*
- For the dressing:
- 1 medium clove garlic, finely minced
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon honey
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Place raisins and apple juice (or water) in a small microwave-safe cup or bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and microwave for 30 seconds. Remove from microwave and set aside to cool. (This simple little technique will plump and moisten the raisins.)
- For the dressing, place all dressing ingredients in a small bowl and whisk with a fork or small whisk till everything is well combined.
- For the salad, place arugula in a medium size salad bowl. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons of the dressing. Toss to coat the greens with dressing. Top with sliced apples, fennel and golden raisins. Lightly toss again. Drizzle salad with a little more dressing. Scatter chopped fennel fronds over the top, if desired. Pass the extra dressing at the table.
Notes
* Generally, when you buy fennel at the grocery store or market, you will find it as a bulb with long stalks. It will look like this. The stalks will have fine "fronds", looking similar to fresh dill. The fronds are edible, and give a salad like this lots of pretty texture.
Nutrition
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Wonderful looking salad, and I love the new theme.
Thank you for this great combination of flavours ! Have a pleasant week !
Thanks so much for your comment!
We have been eating salads a lot since our Thanksgiving feast 🙂 I love the taste of arugula and the fennel, apple and raisins sound so good together! Thank you for another great salad to add to our repertoire, Chris!
This looks wonderful Chris, I forget about fennel and what a wonderful ingredient it is! Sounds perfect-
Beautiful salad! absolutely love it!
Hi Chris, I absolutely love this salad, looks so fresh and delicious. My husband and I have lunch about once a month at Whole Foods, the have the most wonderful salad bar.
How lovely! I adore arugula anyway so this is a must try for me. I love to be inspired by surprising dishes. Thanks for sharing and have a lovely weekend!
Isn't Whole Foods great? We have just gotten a Wegmans, do you have one? Well, they have many, many food bars! Asian, Thai, American, Italian, and a wing bar. Plus they have their own restaurant! I think what makes your salad extra beautiful are the golden raisins, I bet even kids would like it! And I bet something else, too. Yours tasted better than Whole Foods.
I have a very similar recipe..albeit w/ fresh mint in it..beautiful..fresh and crisp..I agree..sometimes I even make it w/out the arugula..Beautiful Chris.
Such a crunchy and wonderful winter salad!