This colourful vegan salad recipe is super easy to make and a refreshingly light side dish to share. A bowl full of crispy shaved fennel and raw courgette ribbons tossed together with sweet, zippy citrus flavours is unbelievably YUM.
Trim the top of the fennel and remove stalks and fronds. Keep some of the fennel fronds to sprinkle on top at serving. Cut fennel in half and using a mandolin, slice thinlyPlace shaved fennel into a bowl cold water with a squeeze of lemon to reduce oxidation. Leave until assembly.
Use a Y peeler to carefully slice courgette (zucchini) lengthwise into long, thin ribbons.
Peel and slice citrus fruit into approximately ½ cm rounds. Then cut rounds into quarters.
Over medium-low heat, dry toast pine nuts in a small fry pan until golden brown.
Dressing
Place orange juice, olive oil, seeded mustard, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, salt and pepper in a jar and give it a good shake.
Taste and then adjust according to taste.
Assembly
Remove fennel from water and give it a good shake to remove any excess water.
Place arugula (rocket leaves), fennel and courgette (zucchini) ribbons in a large mixing bowl and dress with orange and seeded mustard vinaigrette.
Mix around so that the salad is well covered with dressing. Place salad on a plate.
Layer citrus fruit between salad.
To serve, scatter toasted pine nuts and fennel fronds.
Notes
Create your own combination of citrus fruit or substitute with ruby grapefruit, yellow grapefruit or even pomelo.
If you don’t like arugula, you can substitute with spinach leaves.
As you are serving both raw fennel and courgette, make sure you have the freshest of ingredients.
By placing shaved fennel in a water bath will not only stop oxidation but also helps crisp up the shaved fennel.
You can omit pine nuts if you wish to have a nut-free salad or have less than 15 in the recipe for Low FODMAP friendly