Roast asparagus and fennel salad
Delighted to get hold of some tahini, to make a creamy, citrusy salad dressing.
The salad I made mid-week didn’t really hit the mark, but a little fiddling paid off in the end. This salad is worthy of the dressing, and a blog entry.
- 1 large bulb of fennel,
- Bunch of asparagus
- Olive oil
- 4 tablespoons tahini
- 3 tablespoons citrus juice – I used a mix of satsuma and orange, as I didn’t have any lemons
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Red wine vinegar – amount to taste, depending on how acidic your juice is. I used 2 tablespoons, but would rather have had some lemon juice.
- 1 preserved lemon – optional, but nice addition
- Salad leaves
- Black olives
- Bunch of mint
Preheat oven to 220 degrees. Trim the fennel, reserving the fronds for later. Cut into wedges, keeping a little of the root in each one, so it doesn’t fall apart. Toss in some olive oil and plenty of salt and pepper. Roast for 10 minutes. Snap the woody ends off the asparagus and add to the part cooked fennel, anointing with more oil, salt and pepper. Roast for another 10 minutes, until the fennel is soft and the asparagus just cooked through, hopefully with a little colour on both. Let cool.
In the meantime, make the tahini dressing. Whisk the ingredients together in a bowl. Adjust the balance to taste with more juice, salt and pepper if need be. The dressing may be too thick as the ingredients emulsify together – you’re after single cream consistency. If so, a little water will loosen it. If too thin; whisk in some more tahini or oil. If you’re using a preserved lemon, halve it and scrape out the innards and discard them; chop the rind and pith into small dice and stir into the dressing for the occasional salty, citrus hit. Makes way more dressing than you need, but will keep for ages in the fridge and would be good over baked fish or roast vegetables too.
To make the salad, shred the mint leaves, saving a few pretty ones to strew casually, but artfully, on at the end. Mix them with some salad leaves, half the asparagus and fennel, and a spoon or two of dressing to barely coat it all. Then arrange the remaining roasted vegetables, olives on top; drizzle with another spoon of dressing; sprinkle with reserved fennel fronds and mint leaves.
