Elegant fennel salad with apple, pear and mustard vinaigrette {V, GF, Paleo}

Elegant fennel and pear salad with apple and mustard vinaigrette is a simple, seasonal salad that is sweet, perky and a bit sharp. Perfect with a rich meal.

What is fennel?

Fennel is one of those vegetables you grow up either loving or hating.

Its strong anise scent is musky and fragrant, like the aftershave of a man you once loved.

Its fronds tickle the inside of your palm as you begin to slice it, like the hand of a small child beckoning you to play.

When you cut into its heart, fennel opens up fully, just like you did when you finally stopped struggling and gave in to all those feelings that love brings.

And for many of us, that melange of emotions is just too much for one vegetable... Even if that vegetable is part of a perky, tangy fennel salad with pear and apple.

Why I love fennel

To me, fennel holds within it secrets and promises. Its green shape reveals nothing about how it's going to be when it's sliced - languid, beautiful in its paleness. Like an armour, fennel protects its heart with a thick outer shell and a curly helmet, scaring you off with its smell.

But what's inside is so much more than you would expect. Its flesh is sweet and fresh, even a bit citrusy, which is why it pairs up so nicely with lemon and orange and mangoes, as I did in this salad. When you roast it, fennel becomes licoricy in its sweetness, its form completely falling apart and giving way to juiciness, creaminess, and mellow flavours: pure bliss.

Fennel unfailingly speaks to our deepest feelings: love, lust, longing, and loneliness.

For more fennel recipes:

Elegant fennel and pear salad

When I cook with fennel, I usually want to honour its integrity and let it shine. 

This fennel salad with pears, apples and mustard vinaigrette is a simple, seasonal salad that is best made with local fruits and vegetables in their prime.

Fennel, Bartlett pears and Honeycrisp apples are sliced thinly, and thrown together in a delicious heap.

A sharp mustard vinaigrette is drizzled on top, and the whole dish is crowned with perky fennel fronds.

And there you have - pear, apple and fennel salad to crown your late summer or early fall table.

Why apple and fennel salad makes a good combination

Fennel is a sharp, aromatic vegetable. It has a strong anise taste and a fragrance.

However, like a shape shifter, fennel often changes its qualities based on who it goes to bed with, who captured its heart.

Fennel apple salad makes for a great combination precisely because apples are sharp, sweet and tangy - even more so than fennel.

Apples tame the anise flavor of fennel and make its sweet notes come through in this fennel and apple salad.

For more apple recipes:

You may also like these other apple salad recipes:

And then, in comes pear...

Why pear and fennel salad makes a good combination

Pears have a more delicate flavor than apples. While apples are the brash, trash-talking Italian gangster in West Side Story, pear is the elegant, demure and somewhat shy Puerto Rican heroine who no one notices much - until the lovely hero waltzes in (in our case, the hero would be fennel).

While apples often steal the limelight of fall fruits, pears have even more to offer - their captivating scent, reminiscent of jasmine and lilacs; their softening texture, like a bite of angel food cake; and their delicate fresh sweetness.

Pear and fennel work together because they accentuate each other's aromatic qualities.

So when pear and fennel get together in this pear fennel salad, you can bet the results are nothing short of a symphony of flavors.

And the truth? When I run out of apples, the dish works beautifully as just a fennel and pear salad.

Why I love this apple, pear and fennel salad

I love this fennel salad with apple and pear because it's:

• Sweet - between apples, pears and the natural sweetness of fenell, it's a salad that tastes sweet without being full of sugar
• Elegant - its monochromatic looks are just stunning!
• Easy to make - not much more than chopping and mixing here
• Requires no special tools or ingredients
• Perfect for fall - all the vegetables and fruit here are endemic for fall
• Sharp - the taste of fennel really shines through!
• Fresh
• Raw
• Gluten-Free
• Vegan
• Dairy-free
• Paleo
• Makes for a gorgeous side for special occasions like Thanksgiving, Rosh Hashana and Sukkot

When to serve this fennel and pear salad

I made this fennel salad several times in the past two years, including serving it with a chunk of extra-sharp cheddar, to rave reviews.

This fennel salad is great as a side for Thanksgiving. Everything here is seasonal and would look lovely on a Thanksgiving-themed table.

Apples are also customary to serve on Jewish New Year, making this a great Rosh Hashana salad recipe.

And finally, the fresh fall harvest nature of this salad means it'll be right at home at a Sukkot table as well.

All in all, you couldn’t ask for a more refreshing fall salad - and for a vegetable that is so much more than what it seems.

And if you're going to try my bulgur salad with roasted butternut squash, this salad would go beautifully on your Thanksgiving table alongside it. I love to serve it with salmon.

Pair fennel and pear and apple salad with:

Thanksgiving fennel and apple salad web story

If you want to see how to make this Thanksgiving Fennel & Apple Story, check out that link!

Ingredients

These are the seasonal ingredients you need to make this elegant salad:

• Fennel - we are going to use the bulb and the fronds for this recipe
• Bartlett pears - you can use other pears as well, but I love this salad with crisp Bartlett pears
• Honeycrisp apple - use Honeycrisp apples or other crisp and sweet apples, like Cosmic Crisp apples or Gala apples, would work as well
• lemon - we can use fresh lemon juice or bottled, but fresh always works better in salads
• Olive oil - go for either a fruity olive oil to work with all the flavors, or a peppery olive oil for contrast
• Grainy mustard - I just love the contrast of the texture of the mustard grains and the sharp tang of the mustard itself. Make sure you choose a grainy mustard!
• salt
• pepper

See recipe card for exact quantities

How to make this apple, pear and fennel salad

There's very little that goes into making this salad - and the results are honestly going to amaze you.

Slice vegetables

Thinly slice apples, pears and fennel, saving the fronds for later.

Mix mustard vinaigrette

In a glass mason jar, mix lemon juice, olive oil and mustard. Seal the jar and shake it well to emulsify the vinaigrette.

Arrange fennel apple and pear salad on platter

Heap your fennel slices on a large serving platter. Top with thinly sliced apples and pears. Drizzle all of your vinaigrette on top. Top with fennel fronds.

Recommended ingredients and equipment

You don't need a lot of special things for this fennel salad, just fresh ingredients! However, there are a couple of ingredients and equipment I like that set it apart.

Grainy Maille Mustard

Organic wholegrain mustard

Cutting Board

Chef's Knife

FAQ

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Recipe

Fennel salad with pears, apples and mustard vinaigrette

Ksenia Prints

This fennel salad with pears, apples and mustard vinaigrette is a simple, seasonal salad that is best made with local fruits and vegetables in their prime. Fennel, Bartlett pears and Honeycrisp apples are sliced thinly, and thrown together in a delicious heap. A sharp mustard vinaigrette is drizzled on top, and the whole dish is crowned with perky fennel fronds.

3 from 2 votes

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Prep Time 10 mins

Total Time 10 mins

Course Salad

Cuisine French

Servings 4 servings

Calories 137 kcal

Equipment

• Cutting Board
• Chef's Knife
• Mason Jar

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 1 fennel head
• 1-2 Bartlett pears
• 1 Honeycrisp apple
• juice of ½ a lemon
• 2 TBs olive oil
• ½ TB grainy mustard
• salt
• pepper

Instructions

 

• Wash apples, pears and fennel thoroughly. Thinly slice apples, pears and fennel, saving the fronds for later.
• In a glass mason jar, mix lemon juice, olive oil and mustard (notice that I’ve omitted the traditional sweetener in this vinaigrette – the apples and pears are going to give us all the sweetness we want, so I wanted to keep the sauce extra tart). Seal the jar and shake it well to emulsify the vinaigrette.
• Heap your fennel slices on a large serving platter. Top with thinly sliced apples and pears. Drizzle all of your vinaigrette on top. Finally, cut your fennel fronds into small bunches, and arrange them on top.

Nutrition

Calories: 137kcalCarbohydrates: 19gProtein: 1gFat: 7gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 5gSodium: 52mgPotassium: 357mgFiber: 5gSugar: 12gVitamin A: 120IUVitamin C: 18mgCalcium: 40mgIron: 1mg

Keyword apples, Bartlett pear, fall, fennel, Honeycrisp apples, pears, Rosh Hashanah, Sukkot, Thanksgiving

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