Summer salad with cherries and fennel
Juicy red cherries, fresh vegetables and spicy feta cheese. A match made in heaven! Add another simple dressing and you have a quick and delicious, vegetarian dish.
Cherries are healthy
Cherries are packed with fiber and antioxidants and are very good for your body. They are an excellent source of vitamins A and C that are important for your eyes, skin and immune system. Cherries are also rich in potassium, a mineral that supports your cardiovascular system. And did you know that eating a handful of cherries just before bed helps you sleep? This is due to the sleep hormone melatonin found in cherries. The concentration of melatonin is highest in the sour Montmorency cherries.
Cherries in savory dishes
Ah, cherries! They immediately make you think of dessert, but they are also very tasty in savory dishes. The juicy, sweet, full flavor goes well with cheese, poultry, white meat but also spices and herbs such as cinnamon, vanilla, chili pepper, thyme and bay leaf. Think duck breast with a sauce of port and cherries, or a spicy chili in which the sweet cherries combine perfectly with smoky chipotle chilis. I keep it simple and make a fresh, vegetarian summer salad with cherries, fennel and feta. Finishing the dish with grated lemon zest adds an extra touch of freshness.
Recipe: salad with cherries and fennel
Ingredients for 2 persons:
- 60 g mixed young leaves of lettuce
- ½ fennel or 4 baby fennels
- ½ small red onion
- 1 carrot
- 12 large, sweet cherries
- 12 roasted hazelnuts
- 75 g feta cheese
- 2 sprigs of mint
- ½ lemon
- 3 tablespoons of olive oil
- 1 tablespoon of hazelnut oil
- Pepper and salt
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Chopping and slicing
Take your Japanese mandolin and slice the fennel and red onion very thinly. Wash the lettuce and grate the carrot. Cut the cherries in half and carefully remove the pit. Next, coarsely chop the hazelnuts and shred the feta into chunks. Pick the leaves off the mint sprigs. Finally, grate the zest of the lemon. Set everything aside.
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Making vinaigrette
Take a squeeze bottle or small lidded jar in which you pour the olive oil, hazelnut oil and the juice of half the lemon. Close the container and shake hard until everything is well mixed. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
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Plating
Take a salad bowl and mix the lettuce leaves with the fennel, red onion and carrot. Arrange the mixture on the plates. Divide the cherries, hazelnuts and feta over the mixed lettuce. Top with the vinaigrette and finish with the mint leaves and grated lemon zest.
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