Fennel & Citrus Salad

At this time of the year, too much work and a gloomy weather often makes us feel low in energy. So we often go for colourful food, to balance the grey skies. This week we are making a nutritious salad, with raw fennel and citrus.

First of all, we love crunching on raw vegetables. It is relaxing, I can't explain it. Do you remember our raw beetroot and apple salad? Or the wonderful galomyzithra and yoghurt dip we made a few weeks ago to accompany raw veggies? And then there's citrus, the fruits that give colour to winter. And vitamins! Last year we made a wonderful citrus dressing, and a carrot and citrus salad to go with it. This week we found some blood oranges at the market. They are highly seasonal, and we absolutely love foods that you can only find for a few weeks in the year –wild garlic, we are waiting for you!

For this salad, we also used a selection of olives, wild green unripe olives with lemon and our kalamata olives with ouzo, to perfectly complement citrus and fennel! They are a good source of protein, vitamin E, <a href="https://oliveology.co.uk/glossary/antioxidants/" data-tooltip="

Antioxidants

Antioxidants help reduce and neutralise the free radicals in our bodies, caused by harmful exposure to carcinogens in everyday life.» class=»glossaryLink»>antioxidants and <a href="https://oliveology.co.uk/glossary/polyphenols/" data-tooltip="

Polyphenols

The flavenoid polyphenols in olive oil are natural anti-oxidants which have been shown to have antimicrobial action, have significant anti-inflammatory properties, reduce cholesterols, and improve platelet and cellular function. They have a host of beneficial effects from healing sunburn to lowering cholesterol, blood pressure, and risk of coronary disease.

The Koroneiki olive variety has inherently very high levels of polyphenols in comparison with other olive varieties. In addition, oil made from green (unripe) olives has more polyphenols than oil made from ripe olives. The polyphenol concentration increases with fruit growth until the olives begin to turn purple and then begins to decrease.
» class=»glossaryLink»>polyphenols and an excellent provider of <a href="https://oliveology.co.uk/glossary/oleic-acid/" data-tooltip="

Oleic acid

Oleic acid is one of the main monounsaturated fats contained in the olive.» class=»glossaryLink»>oleic acid and <a href="https://oliveology.co.uk/glossary/oleuropein/" data-tooltip="

Oleuropein

Oleuropein is a natural compound unique to the olive tree, found in the olive fruit (especially the unripe fruit) and the leaves.» class=»glossaryLink»>oleuropein. And yummy!

And as this is a citrus feast, we couldn't but use our 17C olive oil with lemons and oranges and our mandarin balsamic vinegar. So go on, grab your fruit and veg and join us in making our days more colourful and fresh!

Serves 4

1 bulb of fennel
1 small orange
1 small blood orange
1 small pink grapefruit
½ tub of olives (we used a combination of unripe lemon and kalamata with ouzo olives)
1 tbsp balsamic cream with mandarin
1 tbsp lemon juice
4 tbsp 17C flavoured olive oil
salt

Thinly slice the fennel. Peel and finely slice the orange, blood orange and grapefruit.

Place in a large platter and scatter the olives. Drizzle with balsamic mandarin cream, lemon olive oil and lemon juice. Season with salt and serve immediately.

This salad turns into a whole different dish if you keep it overnight. The fruits and veg soften up and the flavours all blend wonderfully together. So you can have it for lunch the next day!