Italian garden salad with fennel

This quick and easy Italian garden salad recipe is made with your favorite lettuce and crisp fennel, then drizzled with a lemony parmesan vinaigrette for the perfect side dish.

You can’t go wrong with a simple salad to accompany your dinner table. This Italian Garden Salad with Fennel uses simple, accessible ingredients, but if you’re unfamiliar with fennel, it adds crunch, texture, and fiber! Slightly sweet like liquorice and crunchy like celery, it imparts a mild anise flavor that pairs perfectly with the sweet tomatoes and tangy red onions. I love to drizzle with a lemony parmesan vinaigrette, which we can make quickly, but store-bought Italian dressing would work well too!

Ingredients

• Romaine Lettuce: Crisp and mild in flavor, romaine is an accessible and affordable kale.
• Tomatoes: I like to use grape or cherry tomatoes for a juicy, sweet flavor in this salad.
• Red onion: Pairs well with fennel for a crunchy salad full of balanced flavors.
• Fennel: Wonderfully crunchy, slightly aniseed and a great source of protein and potassium.
• lemon juice: It should come as no surprise that I love using lemon juice when making my own salad dressings.
• Garlic: Nutty and aromatic addition to the salad dressing.
• Olive oil: Heart-healthy and mild taste as the basis for the dressing.
• Parmesan cheese: A delicious hard cheese that’s slightly salty and nutty and complements the dressing.

How to make Italian garden salad with fennel

Start your Italian garden salad by washing and drying your produce. Then roughly chop the romaine lettuce.

Then, thinly slice the red onions and fennel, halve the cherry tomatoes, and place all the salad ingredients in a large bowl.

Then, prepare your lemon and garlic vinaigrette by first grating the garlic into a small bowl using a micro-slicer.

Next, add your fresh lemon juice with the garlic.

And sprinkle the Parmesan cheese on top.

Then stir in the olive oil until fully blended and no longer separating.

Finally, season the dressing with a little salt and pepper.

Drizzle your salad with the vinaigrette dressing, garnish with fresh herbs (e.g. fresh basil) and enjoy your Italian garden salad with fennel!

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Have you tried this salad and did you like it? Next time you do it, take a picture and share it on your social networks! Tag @thelemonbowl and #thelemonbowl so we can admire and share your dish.

If you’ve never tried fennel, this Italian garden salad is a great way to introduce it to your family!

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