Sometimes I have so many veggies in my fridge I don’t even know what to do with them all. So when I peeked in there today and saw a ton of tasty produce, I decided to whip up some little snacks to use ’em up. Since my boyfriend’s out of town (he gets to travel a ton for work, lucky boy!!), I whipped up a bunch of little veggie fixings perfect for one. When he’s home, I cook a plethora of meals, the kind that spread across the table, but when he’s gone, it’s lots of teeny little snacks for one. I saw this fennel hiding in my heap of produce and instantly thought of a gazillion things I could do with it. Thing is, most of them were meal-meals… chicken fennel soup, scalloped potatoes and fennel (mmm doesn’t that sound good??!), and so on, but since it’s just me right now, I opted for a good ol’ perfect-for-one munchy… roasted fennel with Parmesan. Yumm, I pretty much love anything gratin (made with a browned crust of sorts), especially when with cheese!!
Not only is fennel healthy (and a great digestive according to Ayervedic nutritionists), but it’s tasty too! When roasted, it gets this buttery taste that’s sweet and licoricey with a savory flare. I also sprinkled red chili flakes to give it a little spice- not much, just an extra hint of zing. Zing, flare… I’m sure there are more scientific names out there but use your imagination 🙂 Just the bulb is used for this little snack, but I like to keep the green fronds to use as garnish in other dishes- it’s pretty and flavorful!
INGREDIENTS
1 large fennel bulb
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp grated Parmesan, plus a little sprinkle more
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp red chili flakes
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Cut off fronds (green stems and fringy leaves) and any funky areas from the bulb
Save fronds for garnish
Cut the bulb in half…
And then cut each half into four quarters (or into any size you like)
Put fennel in a baking dish and top with oil, parmesan, and seasonings
Toss lightly to mix
Bake for bout 45 minutes until tender
If desired, sprinkle on a wee extra parmesan at the end and bake for
another 5 minutes or so, until golden
Sprinkle with little fennel greens and enjoy!!
YUM YUM YUM!!!
Fennel’s so good! I saw your chicken fennel recipe recently… talk about yum yum yum!!
This sounds really scrumptious. I had hoped to try your recipe with the fennel I grew in my garden. When I dug up the fennel there was no bulb! I linked to this recipe and posted how I used the rest fennel sans bulb anyway Apple Fennel Salad
Hi Kristel! That looks so good! Sorry to hear about your fennel 🙁 But at least the fronds are delish, too!