Fennel Pasta with Greens
Full confession I don't like fennel, but it's super good for you, so if you like and especially can get farm fresh right now, it's worth a look. Fennel provides dietary fiber, vitamin C, and potassium, and it's low calorie like celery. It is also known to promote gut health, heart health, high cholesterol, and fights cell damage with antioxidants. I don't have a real recipe for this just - I just cut up bulb and roast with balsamic, a bit of olive oil, a little homemade garlic powder, and fresh lemon juice for about 10 minutes to 15 minutes (depending if you prefer crunchy). We had our garden tomatoes and peppers to add, and we are swimming in arugula so on it goes - all over pasta with a little lemon butter sauce. Fronds (the feathery, dill-like green leaves at the top of the stalks of fennel) are great garnish.
Ingredients
- Fennel with bulb, stalks, and fronds
- Balsamic Vinegar
- Olive Oil
- Lemon or lemon juice
- Tomatoes or other salad veggies
- Peppers or other salad veggies
- Garlic powder or fresh garlic
- Vegan Butter or Vegetable Spread
- Shredded Vegan Parmesan
Steps
- Preheat oven to 350 and cut up bulb of fennel into chunks. Cut off stalks. You can cook stalks too, but they are not as tender, but even if you don't cook them - save them, so you can cut off fronds for garnish.
- Put in roasting pan roast with balsamic, a bit of olive oil, a little homemade garlic powder, and fresh lemon juice for about 10 minutes to 15 minutes (depending if you prefer crunchy). If you have other roasting vegetables you can add too and cook longer or shorter depending on vegetable.
- Boil up a couple cups of pasta - we chose thin spaghetti. We cool pasta after draining to make a colder dish for hot summer.
- Make a butter lemon dressing/sauce for pasta to taste. Wash arugula and spread on plate and add cold pasta.
- Add garden tomatoes and peppers or other salad toppings.
- Add on spices to taste and use kitchen shears to cut up fronds (the feathery, dill-like green leaves at the top of the stalks of fennel) for garnish.
- Sprinkle on shredded vegan parmesan