Fennel and apple salad

An aromatic salad with a wonderful mixture of textures and flavours.

Serves 4 as a side dish.

Ingredients

• 2 fennel bulbs (300g)
• 1 Granny Smith apple, or other tart variety
• 15g dill, coarse stalks removed, finely chopped
• 15g parsley leaves, finely chopped
• 30g sweetened dried cranberries or sour cherries
• 50g blanched almonds, roughly chopped
• juice of ½ orange, or to taste
• juice of ½ lemon, or to taste
• zest of 1 organic or unwaxed orange
• 2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

 Method

1. Core the fennel and apple and using a sharp knife or mandolin slicer finely cut both into very thin slices, saving any fennel fronds. Place in a bowl with the herbs and cranberries or cherries.
2. Toast the almonds in a dry pan over a medium heat until they turn golden brown, then add them to the salad.
3. Pour over the orange and lemon juices, orange zest and extra virgin olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Toss gently and taste, you may want to add a squeeze more lemon or orange juice to adjust the acidity or sweetness to your liking. Scatter with the reserved fennel fronds, if you have them.
4. This salad can happily sit for 1 hour or so before serving. In fact it even improves, as the flavours have a chance to soak in.

This recipe is an edited extract of Zaitoun by Yasmin Khan, Bloomsbury ($45).