Fennel, Citrus and Blistered Butter Bean salad
Song suggestions:
Don’t I Make It Look Easy - Meghan Trainor
Remember Where You Are - Jessie Ware
Ingredients:
1 bag mixed salad
1 red grapefruit
1 juicing orange
1 tin butter beans (+1 tbsp olive oil)
2 tbsp sliced kalamata olives (or feta cheese if you’re veggie)
1 fennel bulb (+ feathery fronds)
1 small handful fresh mint leaves
Handful of walnuts to grate on top (or pecorino cheese if veggie)
1 handful raisins (optional, use if you find grapefruit particularly tart)
2 handfuls croutons (if you like a crunch!)
Dressing:
2 tbsp olive oil
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 small garlic clove
Recipe:
Take the grapefruit and orange, and slice off the peel and pith. Cut each citrus in half (vertically) and cut out the pith in the middle. Cut each citrus into segments.
Slice the stalks off the fennel bulb and set the feathery fronds (leaves) aside. Slice the fennel bulb and stalks thinly.
Rinse the butter beans clean. In a pan, heat the 1 tbsp olive oil and add the beans. Cook until blistered (crispy outer skin, slight dark brown/blackened spots).
Remove the beans from the pan and add in the fennel: cook until soft and with a similar outer layer. Similarly, you can also grill or roast the fennel (which releases a great flavour) but if you’re after a one-pan job, just use the butter bean pan to cook the fennel! Adapt as you wish.
Make the dressing: mince the garlic clove and mix in with the remaining liquids. Whisk until combined.
Add everything to a large bowl (mint leaves, croutons raisins etc, all the add-ons!), mix well, dress and serve on a large salad plate.
Note: point number 6, I said large bowl. Yes, you’ll need a larger bowl than that. You know you do! It’s gonna spill when you mix it (don’t deny it).
A Bite Out of Life
I’m counting my blessings every since having started my new job. Company culture wasn’t something I ever had huge exposure to before this, but I’m slowly starting to learn what I love most about where I work and why. One of the things is lunchtime - not so much because of the food (although it’s frequently delicious), but because I get to sit around a table with people I’ve just spent all morning with, and will spend all afternoon with, eating and talking, and it feels like I can’t get enough of spending time with them. There’s always a laugh to be had, a home-baked cookie to be shared and a reason to enjoy sitting away from a screen. I’ve had jobs where within the first week it was obvious that desk lunches were commonplace, and I always remember feeling like that was a wasted opportunity to get to know the people I was spending 8 hours a day with. I love food and making it, but the real joy of this hour to me is the people I get to spend it with. Cliché. Guilty! But lunchtime in the office feels like a real treat and I’m totally, utterly grateful to eat with people that value that time as much as I do (or to them it’s totally normal and they don’t think about this at all, but it’s not something that is lost on me).
