Salad with fennel, avocado, and olives

(Preserved Lemon Dressing)

 
 
 
 

Let’s face it: we’ve all had ‘that’ salad at the potluck, family dinner, work lunch. You know the one we’re talking about: soggy, over-dressed lettuce, all of the goodies have sunk to the very bottom of the bowl and everything tastes just about the same. Our relationship with salad is this: it doesn't have to be obligatory, it can be the highlight of a meal. The key to a good salad is enough acid, salt and stuff. We LOVE the stuff.

This green salad has creamy avocado, crunchy shaved fennel and salty, briny Castelvetrano olives. Though a couple of these can be somewhat polarizing ingredients, we find them mild together and completely harmonious. For this particular salad recipe, we start with a simple vinaigrette of olive oil, shallot and preserved lemon, among other things. If you're like Dak & Ju WHY are you suggesting I buy an ingredient that can be expensive and hard to find, that's fair. Preserved lemon is used in a lot of North African cooking and, like any pickle, adds a specific toothsome tang. You can find them in a jar in many grocery stores, order them online or make them yourself! Once you have some on hand, you only need to use a little bit, and they last in the fridge for a while. Like capers, they're just good to have around. —Dak

 

Ingredients

For the dressing:

  • 4 Tbsps Olive Oil

  • 1/4 of a preserved lemon, finely chopped (about 2 Tbsps)

  • 1 Tbsp shallot, minced

  • 4 Tbsps lemon juice

  • 1/2 tsp salt + more to taste

  • Pepper to taste

For the salad:

  • Avocado, cubed

  • Lettuce

  • Castelvetrano olives, cut into slivers

  • Fennel, thinly sliced

  • Olive oil

  • Lemon juice

  • Salt and Pepper

  • Chopped chives (optional)

 

Instructions

  1. Combine all of the dressing ingredients in a spouted measuring cup, bottle, or jar. Whisk or shake bottle or jar with lid until all of the ingredients are emulsified (thoroughly mixed together). Taste and adjust salt to your preferences. Store any extra dressing in a container in the fridge for up to 1 month, *Remember - dressings are made to taste intense on their own because the flavor will be muted once tossed over lettuce and other salad ingredients!

  2. To prepare the fennel, slice the bulb in half, and then into quarters. Cut out the core (the more woody triangle at the base of the bulb) from each quarter and discard. Begin to slice the quarters into pieces as thin as possible. If you have a mandolin, feel free to use it here.

  3. Place thin slices in a bowl, squeeze about a half a lemon’s worth of juice on top, a splash of oil and a hearty pinch of salt. Using your hands, toss the fennel in the bowl to make sure all slices have been coated with the lemon, oil and salt mixture. Set aside to soften.

  4. For the salad, thoroughly rinse you lettuce and using a salad spinner (we recommend investing in one!) or paper towels to dry the leaves. Tear or cut lettuce into bite sized pieces. and place in a large salad bowl. Drizzle with dressing, a little at a time mixing in between. Try a leaf and add more dressing if needed. *Remember: you can always add more dressing, but you can’t take it away!

  5. To serve, place a large handful of dressed lettuce in individual bowls, top with about 5-6 cubes of an avocado (about half an avocado), two to three slivered olives, about 1/3 cup of the marinated fennel. Top with flake salt, a grind of fresh pepper and the chopped chives (if using).

Makes 1 - 4 servings

*The ingredients for the salad can be tailored depending on how many people you are planning to serve this salad to, be it just you or more.