Friday, 4 October 2013

Fennel, quinoa and bulghar wheat salad

Stressful bike rides are becoming a bit of a theme in my blog posts from Italy, and I'm afraid today is no different. I was given instructions (in Italian) on how to get to the supermarket and they seemed relatively simple... until I actually followed them. I'm getting used to the fact that Italians seem to think nothing of cycling along fairly sizeable roads, so initially thought nothing of the many cars whizzing past me. I did however begin to doubt myself when I ended up at a set of traffic lights made up of six lanes of traffic, and then subsequently found myself cycling along the main road towards Rome. Sufficiently terrified, I decided tea would need to be a storecupboard affair. With a greengrocers next door, vegetables are no trouble and, with a health-conscious host, quinoa and bulghar wheat come as standard. This is a fresh and simple little salad, perfect if you're trying to hold onto the last remnants summer before diving head first into the land of blackberry and apple pies.


1 bulb fennel, thinly sliced
1 shallot, very  thinly sliced
250g mixed bulghar wheat and red quinoa, cooked to packet instructions
1 tbsp. white wine vinegar
Juice of an orange
Pinch of salt
4-6 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

  • Arrange the fennel and shallot on your chosen serving dish and drizzle with the vinegar, half the orange juice and 1-2 tbsp. oil.
  • Combine the quinoa/bulghar with the salt and remaining juice and oil.
  • Spoon this mixture on top of the fennel and serve at room temperature.
  • Eat just as it is, or make it a little more Italian by adding few spoonfuls of ricotta (a suggestion made by Caterina, the little Italian girl I'm looking after)

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