Do you always ask yourself how to cook fennel? Indeed, I too often didn’t know how to use them beyond raw in salads or simply boiled, or how to cook them to enhance their flavor. It’s a vegetable that’s very good for our body and is available for a long time at the market, so I started collecting ideas and studying here and there how to best cook them for salads, first courses, main courses, casseroles and so on, which I’ll suggest later. Now let’s see together how to cook them best and a few tips that will make you win in the kitchen.
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very inexpensive
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Cooking time: 20 Minutes
- Portions: 6
- Cooking methods: Boiling
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients for how to cook fennel
- 2.2 lbs fennel bulbs
- 2 pinches salt
How to cook fennel
To cook fennel you can use boiling, steaming or the microwave.
You can cook them whole by removing the base and the tougher outer leaves and cutting each bulb in half or into 4 pieces if they are too large.
Once cleaned, boil the fennel in plenty of lightly salted water for 5 or 6 minutes from the boil, then drain them with a slotted spoon and let excess water drain on a cloth.
You can steam them either cut into quarters or in thin slices; the slices are great breaded and baked or pan-fried with butter.
Steam the fennel for 10 minutes in a pot with a steamer basket if they are halved. If in smaller wedges, 6 minutes are enough, and thin slices will be ready in 4 minutes.
You can pan-sear the steamed fennel wedges with a clove of garlic and cherry tomatoes cut into quarters, sautéing everything with 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil for 5 or 6 minutes to get a tasty and healthy side dish.
Wedges of fennel in a dried tomato sauce make a tasty side dish ready in no time, you can find the recipe HERE.
If you prefer, you can dip the steamed fennel slices in beaten egg and breadcrumbs and brown them in a pan with a knob of butter.
Alternatively, arrange the fennel slices on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake until golden for 15 minutes to obtain dry and crunchy “fennel cutlets.”
Baked gratin fennel is fantastic; you can follow my recipe here.
Or try crunchy fennel without eggs, also oven-breaded, here’s the recipe
Alternatively, slices of fennel can be grilled, then breaded and finished in the oven.
Fennel is very versatile and delicious both cooked and raw. Simply clean it by removing the base, the little tuft on top and any tougher outer leaves, then slice thinly.
Make a salad with fennel slices, fresh cherry tomatoes, Taggiasca olives, a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, salt and, why not, fresh or dried oregano.
You can prepare a fennel and orange salad following my recipe HERE.
Finally, you can cut fennel into sticks along with carrots and celery to dip into a simple oil-and-vinegar dip for a tasty appetizer.
To prepare main courses with fennel you should always par-boil them; I always prefer steaming because it helps preserve the properties of this wonderful vegetable.
Fennel gratin with cream and cheese is a complete and very easy main dish, follow my recipe HERE.
Other recipes
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