How do you cook fennel?

Cafe Society
1

A friend gave me some raw fennel. Not the frilly top part you use as garnish, it’s the actual fennel plant including some of the root. I like the flavor of fennel, because I like anise and licorice, although I read that when it is baked if has more of a “sweet” flavor, which would be okay too. I don’t remember ever seeing it in a grocery store, and I have never tried to cook it before.

I believe you can pan fry or oven bake it, but I’m looking for a quick and easy way to prepare it as a healthy side dish served warm. I will likely have leftovers and plan to reheat it in the microwave for the second night. Any thoughts on how I should cook it, or can someone point me to a recipe they have successfully used in the past?

2

Never mind.

3

I just grill it. I slice it into 0.5" slices, vertically, brush with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, then grill it 2-3 minutes a side right over the coals.

4

I like your idea. It gives me an excuse to fire up the BBQ. I’ll report back how it went.

5

It’s great in a provençal style stew.

6

Great cooked with pork roast or loin.

I could like it in a chicken stew, I think.

7

Fennel and orange salad is classic, and you don’t even need to cook it. There are lots of recipes online.

8

I’ve just roasted it on a baking sheet in the past. It’s not something I find around here very often, but I jump on it when I do.

9

I love fennel and prepare it regularly.

If you’re going to serve it raw, I’d recommend slicing it pretty thin, or be careful about going across the grain, as it can be fibrous. It goes very well with slightly sweet citrusy dressings.

I also like to dice the bulb and stir it into, like, a chicken salad or egg salad. It adds some crunchy texture and a depth of flavor.

Roasting it is easy. Chop off the stems, cut it in half, cut out the heart, then chop it into eights. Toss with oil and a dash of salt and roast for 40 minutes or so.

One of the neat things about fennel is that most of the plant is edible and can be prepared in a variety of ways. So if I get a bulb that has the stems attached with the leaves/fronds at the top (they look like dill), I’ll pick those off and set them aside, chop them roughly, and toss them back in after the bulb has been roasted. Adds color and another layer of flavor.

10

Fennel seed actually comes from a fennel that is all “frilly top part” and no bulb. I’ve got them in my garden: they are a declared weed here.

11

I tried cooking it once, can’t remember the exact recipe but I think I sliced it fairly thinly and pan fried it. It turned out pretty nice: more sweet than aniseedy, which is good since that’s not my favourite flavour. But for the same reason, I never bothered again.

You’ve probably grilled it by now anyway; did it turn out good?

12

Usually I slice it thin across the bulb and use it as a base aromatic for trout en papillote. Like so:

13

There are different varieties of fennel. Some of them are bred for top growth only, some of them for bulb. The bulb types will eventually bolt to seed at which point they’ll have a whole lot of frilly top part with a no longer very usable bulb; is that what you’re thinking of, maybe? If you plant seed from leaf-type fennels, you’re going to get leaf-type fennel, not bulbing fennel.

ETA: maybe you meant that fennel grown for fennel seed for culinary use, not for planting use, is not the bulbing fennel. If so, that’s generally correct, and I just misunderstood you.