One thing meal prep: Fennel
Wash and slice some fennel. Throw some of it into the oven to roast. Put some of it in a soup, and some in a salad and you've taken care of A LOT of next week's cooking.
It’s the first third Friday Sunday of the month, so it’s “One thing meal prep” time! If you’re new here, this is the elevator pitch: Instead of being overly ambitious and burning out, we prep ONE THING over the weekend and use it as a building block for meals throughout the following week. Check out September 2024’s meal prep here.
Or, find all of our preps here.
This month: Fennel!
Alright, so this month’s meal prep is late because I’ve been in functional freeze since Election Day. I don’t think I need to go into it because, well, we all have our feelings about the election and mine are…not great. But I feel like it’s more important than ever to be realistic with ourselves about what we’re capable of as we adjust to all of the incoming changes. And we still have to eat.
Is fennel overlooked as a vegetable? I don’t always feel like it’s well represented and I’ll be honest, it’s hard to get my kids to eat it. If anything, they pick around it.
But I love it. It feels fancy, but doesn’t require a lot of work. It also changes entirely when it’s roasted . Here’s what I do:
Trim off the green stalks right where the green turns into white.
Cut the bulb in half vertically.
Cut out the hard white core on both halves (this will also cut off the root area at the base of the fennel bulb).
If the outermost layer of the bulb is browning or looks king of mangy, I get rid if it.
Thinly slice the remaining bulb.
If leaving raw, but not using right away, put the slices in an air tight container and fill with water to cover the fennel. This will keep it from browning.
If roasting, toss the slices with 1-2 Tbsp of olive oil, sprinkle with salt, and roast in a 400°oven until the thinnest bits are browned.
When cooked, the fennel tastes almost meaty, which is a fun party trick. Throwing it into a vegetarian dish gives it a bit of heft.
Left raw, fennel has a sharp, anise-y bite almost like a more aromatic arugula. I love tossing it into salads that accompany anything rich or fatty. The sharpness is a really nice counterpart to everything from a fancy holiday roast to a more humble weeknight stew.
Here are a few ideas for this week:
