Shaved Fennel Honeycrisp Salad

Jump to Recipe

This past weekend, it was Thanksgiving here in Canada. I will be the first to admit that I’m not a “turkey with all the trimmings” sort of girl. My partner and I slow-cooked chorizo sausages and made tacos to mark the occasion. It’s not that I find any one holiday dish to be particularly offensive. I just find traditional holiday fare to be a little, well, overwhelming. It’s a lot at once. For example, I could practically live off of mashed potatoes, but on a plate with stuffing, turkey, ham (sometimes), and every other root vegetable known to man, it’s easy to lose track of those heavenly taters. When it comes to heavy holiday meals, sometimes your palette just needs a break, and today’s Shaved Fennel Honeycrisp Salad is that break. 

But don’t worry, gentle reader, I’m not a total Grinch. I obviously like to throw a dinner party, hence the supper club.  And I do realize the holidays are basically the Olympics for people like me. But I think the classic turkey dinner needs a little more balance, a little refreshing restraint, and maybe some added contrast. That’s why I think you should sacrifice a fiddly side dish or two in favour of a big green salad. 

Even if you love the holidays and all the food that goes with it, you have to admit it’s pretty heavy and sort of monotone in terms of texture. But a crunchy, full-flavour salad like this Shaved Fennel Honeycrisp Salad? Well, this is the refreshment and contrast your festive table has been looking for. This salad features a bed of baby romaine lettuce topped with shaved fennel and Honeycrisp apple slices tossed in lemon juice. The dish is finished with pickled shallots, fennel fronds, and crumbled roasted pecans, and served alongside an Apple Cider Poppy Seed Dressing. Bright, crunchy, tart, sour, sweet, this salad is hitting all the notes your turkey and gravy aren’t. It’s the perfect counterpoint, invite it to all your parties!

Another selling feature of this salad? It’s so simple to put together, and the dressing can be made in advance. We’re going to start by slicing a couple of shallots nice and thin. Pile the slices into a bowl and cover them with apple cider vinegar. Set them aside to pickle while you measure out the rest of the dressing ingredients. 

Place the garlic, apple cider, olive oil, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, honey, and salt in a smoothie cup or a high-powered blender. Once the shallots turn a shade of bright pink, drain them and pour the vinegar into the blender as well. Blitz everything together on high until the mixture emulsifies. Pour the finished dressing into a jar and add the poppy seeds. Stir until the seeds are evenly dispersed. This dressing is far from perishable and will keep sealed in the fridge for a week. You can hold on to the pickled shallots as well. You’ve got to love make-ahead anything during the holidays.

Now, let’s tackle the headliners: the fennel and apples. We’re going to remove the fronds from the fennel bulb. Not only are the fronds delicious, they’re also so delicately beautiful that I love including them as a garnish wherever possible. Set the fronds aside and shave the fennel nice and thin on a mandoline. And I know I say this every time I summon a mandoline, but I’m going to say it again: invest in a safety glove. Can you slice a fennel bulb on a mandolin without one? Yes. Do I want to watch you do it? Absolutely not! My nerves can’t take it.

There is no need to include the mandoline when it comes to the apples. You’re also going to slice the apples nice and thin, but they aren’t shaved like the fennel. So all you need is a quality chef’s knife. Once the fennel and apples are sliced, pile them into a bowl and toss them with lemon juice. Both fennel and apples are prone to oxidation, meaning they brown when exposed to oxygen. This process doesn’t alter the taste or texture of the produce, but it is a little unappetizing. The lemon juice helps guard against this process, and it gives the fennel and apples a flavour boost.

Now, you’re ready to assemble the salad. Start with a bed of baby greens. Layer the fennel and apples on top and garnish the salad with the pecans, the shallots you pickled earlier, and the reserved fennel fronds. If you are making this salad for a crowd, and I’m going to assume you are, assemble the salad in the afternoon and serve it with the dressing on the side.

Serving the dressing on the side makes for smart entertaining in two ways. The first is that people like to apply their own dressing. How much dressing to add to any given salad is deeply personal, and it should be up to the eater’s discretion in most cases. And the second is that by leaving the dressing off, you can assemble the salad and pop it back in the fridge. Then, when the time comes, you can simply pluck it from the fridge and bring it to the table, like the nonchalant hosting champ you are. 

And that’s everything you need to know about this Shaved Fennel Honeycrisp Salad with Apple Cider Poppy Seed Dressing. We have months of heavy holiday fare and comfort food ahead; this salad will provide us with tangy, tart refreshment along the way.

Enjoy!