Simple Fennel Salad

I love fennel, even though I’ve had nothing to do with the vegetable until now. But I am well acquainted with the essential oil.

Since the early 1990s, I’ve often dabbled with aromatherapy. I found a couple of books that gave me recipes for healing mouth ulcers, a persistent cough and tennis elbow, which both I and my friends happily took on board. My favourite book which I still use is "The Fragrant Pharmacy" by Valerie Ann Worwood. It is chock full of aromatherapy recipes for just about any condition or situation, even including an insect deterrent. The second book that I have sometimes found helpful is “Aromatherapy for Scentual Awareness” by Karen Downes and Judith White.

I dabbled so much with essential oils that I have a small collection of mostly out of date oils, including some fennel oil with a use by date of June 2003. It has a lovely aroma similar to aniseed when heated in an essential oil burner.

So to find this raw recipe based on fennel was a godsend, thanks to the Rawlicious booklet.

After blending for a few seconds, the fennel salad looked like mashed potato. It tasted fine, but I just knew it wouldn’t translate well in a photo on its own. Having watched as much of MasterChef as I could, I have become very aware of how I “plate up” my meals – particularly for this blog. So I added some ingredients and end results to my meal that just happened to be sitting in the fridge.

A smattering of coriander leaves circling home-grown tomato slices with a plump serving of fennel salad drizzled with raw curry sauce and some fig puree. A small dollop of the fennel salad tops off the meal. And it was delightful, if I can say so myself.