The Fennel Made Me Do It

I found a great way to use fennel!  I have always had this weird relationship with fennel.  Some days we get along, some days we do, some days we'll drink wine by the fire and...  Moving on, I never could figure fennel out - until we made this salad! It's light and hearty at the same time and it has this amazing way of hitting every taste bud!

By the way!  Please follow my blog!  I am new to the blogger world and I need some friends.  I'm not to bashful to ask for a friend or 2!

GETTING STARTED:
Back to the salad.  We started out with some very basic ingredients.

Salad:

• fresh fennel (also known as anise)
• 2 red peppers
• 1 sweet red onion
• lentil mash leftover from my earlier recipe
• a little garlic powder, salt, pepper
• fresh parsley

The KEY to this is cutting your ingredients julienne style (long) and super thin.  And when I say super thin, I mean super thin.


The Dressing:
Oh boy oh boy oh boy is this good.  This is what makes this fantastic.

• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (if you do oil, I omitted this)
• 2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon sugar (I left this part out too)
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 garlic clove, minced 
• A shake of garlic powder

Put these in a blender if you wish or whisk them together as I did. 
Notice I omitted the oil and sugar and it still tasted awesome.  I left it in for those who still enjoy those ingredients.

Next Take the curried lentil mash (cold) and put in your plate or bowl.  Lay your vegetables on top and lightly sprinkle with your dressing and parsley.  Wallah!  Finite!  You can speed through this one too, if you're pressed for time.

When I tasted this for the first time, I was totally in love with how the fennel just brought it all together.  The thinly sliced veggies and the dressing is what made this perfect. 

Fennel, you had me at hello.