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This arugula fennel salad is one of my favorite dishes as it has an array of beautiful flavors that all create such a wonderful salad. With arugula’s subtle spiciness, avocados creamy flavor, fennel’s faint licorice taste, and a sweet and citrusy dressing to round out the dish; it’s a must.
A Note On This Salad
It’s important to note that this fennel arugula salad requires special equipment that you may not have. Texturally and flavor-wise the dish will not taste as intended if the items are not sliced in the way the meal’s been designed. I’ve linked the most important items below, starting with my most-used tool: my mandoline!
Mandoline: This slicer has numerous settings to help control the width of your slices. You’ll want to practice slicing vegetables slowly at first and build up in speed from there. I like this version as it is small enough to comfortably hold in one hand securely while using the other hand to slice your product. I like to slice my radishes and fennel just a few cranks from the flat setting, or extremely thin. Please, if you make any culinary investment that’s not a vitamix, make it this mandolin!
A Very Sharp Chef’s Knife: This may sound obvious on a food blog, however many cooking enthusiasts still don’t have a chef’s knife. This is something that I think everyone should have in their kitchen. I’ve linked my favorite chef’s knife that I use daily, however what I always recommend as a chef is that you determine your favorite based on your personal needs. I choose comfort over materiality almost always. To help ensure a sharp knife, buying a chef’s steel is also a wise purchase.
Make A Portion Of This Arugula Fennel Salad Ahead Of Time!
Making this arugula fennel salad will be as easy as you make it to be. A perfect place to start prepping would be with your croutons. Next, you can save your sliced fennel and radishes ahead of time by slicing and adding them to water. This will help to speed up your preparation time the day that you choose to enjoy this recipe.
Arugula Fennel Salad With Buttered Salmon
Ingredients
Rosemary Croutons
- 3 springs rosemary
- 1 loaf sourdough or gluten-free bread
- 1/3 cup ⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp garlic granules (I prefer granules over garlic salt or powder)
Salmon Ingredients:
- 4 / 4-6 oz piece of salmon
- 1-2 tbsp butter
- 1/2 tsp salt/ salt blend or desired amount
- 1/4 tsp tsp garlic granules
- 1/4 tsp black pepper optional
- 1-2 tbsp butter for basting
- 1 tsp garlic granules
Salad Ingredients
- 1 sliced Easter egg radish
- ¼ small thinly sliced fennel bulb
- ¼-½ granny smith apple
- ½ avocado
- ¼ cup croutons
- 1 cup packed arugula
- Dressing as desired
Dressing Ingredients:
- Juice of 1 lemon
- ⅛ tsp black pepper
- 1 chopped garlic clove
- 1 tbsp dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp Parsley
- ½ tsp honey
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
Rosemary Croutons Instructions:
- First, begin by heating your oven to 350 degrees.
- Using a chef’s knife, finely chop your rosemary sprigs into fine pieces and reserve in a bowl
- Using your favorite (sliced) bread, chop into small to medium diced-sized pieces and reserve in the same bowl as your rosemary.
- Following this, add in your salt, garlic granules, as well as your extra virgin olive oil & combine with clean hands until fully mixed.
- Next, bake your croutons on a sheet tray until golden (approximately 20-25 minutes) turning halfway through.
- Reserve in a sealed container for your salad!
Salmon Instructions:
- Season your fillets evenly and let rest for a few minutes (closer to room temperature)
- While your salmon rests, slice your fennel, radish, and apple. Cut your avocado into diced sized pieces.
- Using a sauté pan, add butter and let heat. Add fillets flesh side down, skin side up once oil has heated.
- Let your fish cook for approximately 2-4 minutes and turn until fish becomes opaque, adding your butter to the pan halfway through and basting the fish with butter until it has reached an internal temp of 145.
- While your salmon cooks, create your dressing.
Dressing Instructions:
- Add all ingredients to a bowl except your olive oil stirring to combine.
- Once combined, slowly add in your olive oil to create your vinaigrette.
Salad Instructions:
- Using the large bowl that you made your dressing, add in all of your produce and stir to combine with desired routons.
More Recipes To Enjoy
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