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Grilled Fennel and Red Onion Salad

June 15, 2017 By Jessica Braider Leave a Comment

Grilled Fennel and Red Onion Salad

Over the past year or so my sons have shown little to no interest in what I choose at the farm share each week. This has been a source of disappointment for me for two reasons: 1) I love walking through the selections with them and talking about their favorites as well as about new fruits and vegetables they (or we) hadn’t tried yet and 2) I felt like somehow this weekly ritual that I consider to be such a privilege and treat just seemed commonplace to them. Then this week I realized that I was seeing it all wrong.

My older son was playing at the nearby playground while I was picking out our food and I called him over in the hopes that he would help me pick out one last vegetable. He came trotting over, I told him what I had already picked out and asked him to pick out one more vegetable. He walked around the table, looking at everything that was there, and then reached for the fennel. As we walked back to the car he asked if he could munch on a stalk of fennel as we drove home, which of course I happily agreed to, and in that moment I realized that the magic of the farm share had actually been working the whole time. You see, not only did he enjoy fennel (which I did not know even existed when I was his age!) to the point that he couldn’t even wait to get home to eat it, but all those years of weekly treks to the farm share had gotten him to a point where he was able to recognize everything on the table and make an informed decision that was truly exciting to him!

So in honor of his appreciation of fennel I wanted to share with you a favorite grilled salad that helped me to learn to enjoy this vegetable that I was not crazy about when I first tried it. For those of you who aren’t familiar with fennel, when it is raw it has quite a strong anise (black licorice) flavor to it, but if you roast or grill it the flavor changes completely and it become subtle and sweet. This salad can be made on the grill outside or on a grill pan on your stove and it is a great summer salad to serve with grilled meats or veggie burgers. It is light, refreshing, and wonderfully crunchy.


Grilled Fennel and Red Onion Salad
 
Save Print
Prep time
5 mins
Cook time
10 mins
Total time
15 mins
 
Author: Jessica Braider
Recipe type: Salad, Side
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 2 small red onions
  • 2 small bulbs of fennel
  • 1 tablespoon crumbled feta, or more to taste
  • 1 teaspoon of fresh thyme leaves, or more to taste
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • half a lemon
  • salt and pepper
Instructions
  1. Preheat your grill or grill pan and set it to a medium heat.
  2. While the grill is heating, cut the onion into ½-inch thick slices. Then cut the stalks off of the fennel bulb so you are left just with the bulb. Cut it in half lengthwise and then, like the onion, again into ½-inch thick slices.
  3. Brush the onion and fennel slices with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper, on both sides.
  4. Lay the slices on the grill let them cook for 3-5 minutes on each side, or until they are just starting to soften.
  5. Place them on a platter and top with thyme, crumbled feta, a drizzle of olive oil, and a good squeeze from the lemon. Add more salt and pepper, if desired.
3.5.3226

 

Filed Under: Feeding Kids, Healthy Eating, Picky Eaters, Sides Tagged With: Easy, fennel, grilled, healthy, kids, lemon, onion, quick, salad

Moroccan Sheet Pan Chicken

April 4, 2017 By Jessica Braider Leave a Comment

Moroccan Sheet Pan Chicken

I developed this recipe for a fellow blogger, Raquel at Sincerely Nourished, but wanted to make sure you all got to see it to! This is a super simple recipe anyone can throw together for dinner and is so packed with flavor you will feel like you are on vacation in North Africa!

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Filed Under: Dinner, Family Dinner, Healthy Eating Tagged With: 30 minute meal, carrots, chicken, chickpeas, dinner, Easy, healthy, moroccan, onion, sheet pan

Roasted Summer Vegetable Dip

September 8, 2016 By Jessica Braider Leave a Comment

Roasted Summer Vegetable Dip

We came home this week from our extended trip to Colorado to an overwhelming amount of produce to take care of. So in addition to getting the kids back into the swing of things at school and getting back into my normal rhythms, I have been trying to preserve lots of summer fruits and vegetables. To use up tomatoes, peppers, and other summer vegetables I usually go with a huge vat of skillet tomato sauce and then freeze the extra for the winter, but this year I wanted to try some else as well: roasted summer vegetable dip.

When I was a teenager one of my favorite meals was ratatouille. My mom would make it every summer and I would be in heaven for days (it gets better over time as the flavors continue to mix with each other). One summer we had some friends coming over for dinner and wanted to come up with a quick appetizer. We ended up pureeing leftover ratatouille, spreading it on thin slices of French bread, and toasting it with some fresh mozzarella on top. I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

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This recipe is a simplified version of that same deliciousness, because honestly when you are overwhelmed by the amount of produce threatening to go bad on your counter, or by general life craziness, who has time to stand over the stove keeping an eye on the ratatouille? With this recipe you jut roughly chop, throw it in the oven, and puree when everything is cooked. Pretty easy!…

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Filed Under: Dinner, Freezer Cooking, Healthy Eating, Sides, Uncategorized Tagged With: dip, Easy, eggplant, freezer, healthy, onion, sauce, tomato, zucchini

How to Make a Noodle Soup Without a Recipe

March 3, 2016 By Jessica Braider Leave a Comment

How to Make a Noodle Soup Without a Recipe

My family has been on a BIG noodle soup kick this winter. Chicken noodle, vegetable noodle, and Asian noodle have all been on regular rotation and I am loving it! Why? Four reasons: 1) they are easy to make in 30 minutes, 2) they are cheap, 3) I can use whatever I have left in my fridge and it will turn out great, and 4) it is an easy way to get more vegetables in!…

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Filed Under: Cooking Basics, Dinner, Feeding Kids, Lunch, Quick Dinners Tagged With: asian noodle, asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, carrot, celery, chicken noodle, corn, Easy, edadmame, healthy, kale, onion, peas, soup, Spinach, vegetable noodle, Vegetables, vegetarian

Root Vegetable Latkes

December 3, 2015 By Jessica Braider 1 Comment

Root Vegetable Latkes

Last year around this time I shared my sweet potato latke recipe with you. It is one of my favorites. Very simple, very tasty, and I was excited to make them again for Hanukkah this year. And then my husband announced that he is sick of sweet potatoes. WHAT?! So while I will still make the sweet potato latkes for the rest of us, I thought this might be a nice chance to try something new, and the root vegetable latke was born!

As with my sweet potato version, these latkes are not fried in oil, but rather are baked on a layer of oil. I know that takes away from their traditional latke-ness, but I just have a block about frying foods in my house. And I have to say, the smell of these baking is absolutely awesome—way better than the smell of fried foods that lingers for days…

These latkes are made with carrots, parsnips, and onions, so they are quite sweet, but also lighter than standard latkes. They go really nicely with sour cream or plain Greek yogurt—the sweet and sour. You can also make them even more interesting and exciting by adding one of the optional spices—cumin, chili powder, and za’atar would all be awesome….

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Filed Under: Sides Tagged With: baked, carrot, hanukkah, healthy, holiday, onion, parsnips, root vegetable

Savory Zucchini Corn Muffins

July 16, 2015 By Jessica Braider Leave a Comment

Savory Zucchini Corn Muffins

Zucchini and all summer squash are at their peak right now. They are everywhere. The farmer’s markets and farm share baskets are full of them and they are on super sale in the grocery stores. Given their abundance I have been on the search for new and different ways to cook with them. I’ve sautéed, roasted, and grilled them. I’ve added them to sauces, casseroles, and sweet breakfast muffins. But this week I decided to try something different: a savory muffin. And boy am I glad I did!

These muffins are simple, flexible, and delicious. They are wonderful as a side dish with a cold summer soup, like gazpacho (here is a great, super simple recipe), or with a big salad. They’d be wonderful with a light chili made in the crock pot, so your house doesn’t get too hot. And they’d make a great addition to a barbeque or picnic….

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Filed Under: Baked Goods, Breakfast, Freezer Cooking, Lunch Box Food, Sides Tagged With: cheddar, corn, Easy, feta, garlic, healthy, jalapeño, monterey jack, onion, parmesan, summer squash, Vegetables, zucchini

Skillet Tomato Sauce

April 7, 2014 By Jessica Braider Leave a Comment

Skillet Tomato Sauce

Last week I had a great meal plan all planned out. The only problem was, I lost my momentum and excitement about some of the meals I had planned, which then left me looking at my pantry trying to come up with other ideas that would be more inspiring to me. Whenever this happens to me, I almost always end up turning to my go-to meal: a quick fresh tomato sauce. This meal is wonderful for a number of reasons:…

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Filed Under: Cooking Basics, Dinner, Family Dinner, Quick Dinners Tagged With: 30 Minute Meals, garlic, greens, onion, tomato, Vegetables, vegetarian

Jessica Braider

Hi! I'm Jessica. I love delicious food that is simple and easy. As a busy mom, I am always on the lookout for ways to make life easier and tastier! Read More…

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