Quick, homemade lunches are like gold around here - I work partly from home, so often find myself in the kitchen with twenty minutes for lunch before needing to go back out into the world. I've discovered how much can be cooked in twenty minutes - pastas, soups, omelets, and fried sandwiches are mainstays. This salad, however, makes a light, sharply flavoured addition to the roster.
Thin slices of fennel are tossed with a bit of braised cabbage, sliced apples, and a dijon vinaigrette. The anise-flavour of the fennel is matched by the sweetness of apple and the sharpness of the mustard. The cabbage adds a basenote of flavour and bulk, making this salad filling enough, with maybe a slice of toast, for a proper lunch. Salty shavings of parmesan over the top add umami-loaded bite to the whole thing.
Here I used a combination of savoy and brussels sprouts tops for the cabbage, but I expect most cabbages would do nicely. The apples were the sharp, juicy "Evita" apples sold by Brambletye Fruit Farms, who sell their biodynamic fruit at most London Farmers' Markets.
*****
1 cup cabbage, shredded
1 bulb fennel, sliced thinly
1 apple, cored and sliced thinly
1 tbsp. dijon mustard
3 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. brown rice vinegar (though I expect apple cider vinegar would be nice, too)
1 tsp. honey
salt and pepper
parmesan, for shaving over top
1. Add your cabbage to some oil in a hot pan and fry for 1 minute. Toss in a splash of water and pop a lid on the pan, turning the heat down. 2. Meanwhile, mix your dressing together in a big bowl and season to taste. 3. Your cabbage should cook in about 3 minutes or so, the time it takes to prep your fennel and apple. Toss all the ingredients together and serve with some parmesan and fennel fronds over the top.
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