Simple Uses for Fennel

 

When you have a large crop of fennel from the garden or farmstand, you don't have time to casually include it in complicated recipes or to frantically figure out how to use it up before it goes bad without getting sick of it.  You want to make the most of your harvest and to actually enjoy it.

Here at Plant to Plate, we like to keep things simple!  Here are some of my favorite ways to use or preserve fennel:

• Make a tea with the leaves.  Fennel leaves are the frilly part of the plant that resemble dill.  They almost impossible to find commercially, so fennel leaf tea (infusion) is truly a gardener's treat.  Fennel leaves have almost all of the same properties as the seeds, which are more widely available, but a much sweeter and more refreshing taste.  They also complement other herbs like chamomile, catmint, St. John's wort, and mints whose growing seasons overlap with fennel's.

• Make a tea with the seeds.  Fennel seeds are best decocted or added to a decoction blend.

• Roast the stalks and bulbs with garlic.

• Roast the stalks and bulbs with parmesan.

• Tray-bake the stalks and bulbs with chicken and garlic.

• Make tomato-fennel soup with the stalks, bulbs, and leaves.  Combine them with tomatoes and chicken broth or vegetable broth.  Alliums like garlic, leeks, shallots, and onions make great additions to this soup if you have them on hand as well, but the three-ingredient version is also delicious on its own.

• Make fennel-potato soup with fennel leaves, stalks, and bulbs along with potatoes, sage, and chicken broth or vegetable broth.  Again, alliums complement this soup wonderfully if you have them, but the soup stands solidly on its own as well.

• Make a Simple Salad.  Add fennel to any of the following for a refreshing Simple Salad:
• Cucumbers and feta
• Cucumbers and tomatoes
• Apples and gouda
• Apples, gouda, and walnuts
• Apples and mizuna
• Celery and blue cheese dressing
• Plums and walnuts
• Plums and pecans
• Watercress and dill
• Watercress and peaches or other fruit of choice
• Avocado and grapefruit
• Arugula and pears

• Use it as a Frame in an Interesting Salad.  (Wondering why I capitalized those letters?  Read more about Interesting Salads here!)

• Add the stalks, bulbs, and leaves to egg dishes like omelets and quiches.

• Add the stalks, bulbs, and leaves to baked or mashed potatoes.  Whether the fennel is roasted, grilled, stirfried, sautéed, or baked, it makes a fantastic topping for baked or mashed potatoes, either on its own or with endive or radicchio.

• Add the leaves, stalks, and bulbs to pasta dishes, stovetop or baked, alone or with tomatoes and/or leeks.

• Bake the leaves, stalks, and bulbs with onions and potatoes.

• Bake the stalks, bulbs, and leaves with salmon and oranges.

• Sauté or stirfry the stalks, bulbs, and leaves with salmon and tomatoes.

• Sauté, stirfry, bake, or roast the stalks, bulbs, and leaves with lemongrass and any type of fish.

• Sauté or stirfry the stalks and bulbs with leeks.  Fennel and leeks complement each other beautifully.  They can be eaten alone as a side or added to pasta dishes, casseroles, eggs, and many other dishes.

• Sauté or stirfry the stalks and bulbs with leeks and snap peas.

• Sauté or stirfry the leaves, stalks, and bulbs with eggplant, tomatoes, and pine nuts.

• Sauté or stirfry the leaves, stalks, and bulbs and serve over rice.  Add nuts of choice if desired.

• Sauté or stirfry them with chicken, bok choy, and carrots.

• Add the stalks, bulbs, and leaves to a bowl with chickpeas and yogurt.

• Add the stalks, bulbs, and leaves to a bowl with beets and barley or quinoa.

• Sauté or stirfry the stalks, bulbs, and leaves with lamb.

• Add diced stalks and bulbs to a lamb-burger patty before cooking the patty, or sauté them separately and use them to top the patty instead.

• Grill the bulbs.  Remove the outermost layer and place the rest of the bulb on the grill.

• Steam the stalks and bulbs with broccoli or broccolini.

• Steam or roast the stalks and bulbs with asparagus.

• Sauté or stirfry the stalks and bulbs with sausage and mustard greens or other Brassica leaves like tatsoi, komatsuna, or cauliflower leaves.

• Use the leaves and seeds as spices to flavor a wide variety of cooked, baked, and tossed dishes.

• Make a tincture with the seeds.  An herb:solvent ratio of 1:5 at 40% alcohol is suggested for a fennel seed tincture.

• Dry or dehydrate the leaves and seeds for later use.  See our How to Dry Your Herbs articles here for more information.

• Freeze the stalks and bulbs to save them for later.  They can be frozen whole.  But they will likely freeze more evenly if sliced or diced first, especially in the case of the bulbs.

• Pickle the whole plant, alone or with green beans.  Fennel works well with both traditional and quick-pickling methods.

Further Reading

Growing fennel?  Check out these quick facts like its best growing conditions, companion plants, and expected yields.

Fennel is also featured in these articles:

• Quick Facts: Growing Fennel
• The Interesting Salad Protocol: How to Build an Interesting Salad
• How to Preserve Your Harvest: Herbal Preparations

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