Roasted Fennel Salad with Lentils, Goat Cheese, and Lemon Vinaigrette

Well the Blazers sure fought hard but we still lost in the end.  I'm proud of them and how well they did this season, and there's always next year!  Tomorrow I have my mid term accounting exam which I am pretty nervous for but after I am rewarding myself by going down to City Farm and buying lots of fun tomato starts!  It is going to be a full day of gardening fun at our house.  In addition a friend of mine needed a smart phone and I had my old 3Gs lying around so I traded it to him for a bunch of fun vegetable and flower seeds that I am very excited to plant (and yes I know I'm a little late planting wise).  In a couple weeks my boyfriend and I are going to Kachka (Russian food) for a fun date night.  It has an amazing menu and this will be my first visit so I will have to do it right and get a flight of vodka to accompany our meal.  They also just signed a cookbook deal and you better believe I will be buying that book for the dumpling recipes alone.  I adapted this recipe last night in my attempt to master lentils and use them more, it turned out amazing!

Serves 4

The Ingredients

For the salad:
1 whole bulb fennel
1 small red onion (or half a large one)
1 big bunch flat leaf parsley
1 cup dry lentils (I used French green lentils)
1 teaspoon toasted fennel seeds

For the dressing:
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup rice vinegar
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 heaping tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon salt
fresh ground pepper

Goat cheese to sprinkle on top of salad when served


The Process
1.  Cook the lentils while you prep the rest of the ingredients. I did 3 cups water to 1 cup lentils, brought it to a boil and boiled it for 3 minutes.  Then turned it down to a simmer and simmered it for 30 minutes.

2.  Using a mandolin or your rock-star knife skills, slice the whole fennel bulb as thin as you can – do the same with the onions. Spread out the sliced fennel on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and add some salt and pepper.

3.  Broil on low for 10 minutes or until fragrant and tender but al dente. While the fennel is roasting, toast the fennel seeds in a hot pan until fragrant, 3 to 5 minutes.

4.  In a large bowl, toss all the ingredients for the salad together. In a jar with a lid, combine all the ingredients for the dressing and shake to mix. Pour dressing over salad and taste for salt and pepper.