Fennel & Peppers

A super, super simple and tasty vegetable side dish, if a bit late for me to be posting it. I've still got a big bowl of peppers in various degrees of ripeness sitting on the kitchen counter, but the peppers are definitely winding down, and local fennel is just plain hard to find at any season, although hopefully there is still some around from not too far afield. 

 

This goes with any kind of animal protein, but I think it is particularly nice with beef, and if the beef is in the form of steak, so much the better. For a vegetarian take, and I can see it going really well with something like macaroni and cheese.

 

2 to 4 servings

20 minutes prep time

1 medium bulb fennel

1 medium onion

1 medium red pepper

1 tablespoon mild vegetable OR olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

a few flakes of crushed red chile, if desired 

the juice of 1/2 lemon

2 tablespoons finely chopped fennel fronds

Wash and trim the fennel, putting aside a few of the finest, brightest green fronds for the garnish, but discarding the tough base and stems. Slice the remaining bulb into slivers. Peel and sliver the onion similarly. Wash, core and deseed, and cut the pepper into thin slices, then cut them in roughly the same length as the fennel and onion pieces. 

Heat the oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add the onion and pepper pieces, and sauté them for a few minutes until the soften and begin to wilt. Season with the salt, pepper, and chile if desired. Add the fennel and continue cooking and stirring the vegetables for a few minutes more until they are all done to your liking. Add the lemon juice just a minute or so before you remove the vegetables from the stove, and mix it in well.

Turn them out at once into a serving dish and sprinkle them with the finely chopped fresh green fronds - this adds a great deal to the flavour of the vegetables, so be sure to chop them finely for easy mixing in, and sprinkle them broadly so everyone gets some of them. Serve at once. 

Last year at this time I made Celery Salad with Dates, Almonds, & Parmesan.