Roasted fennel bulb with roasted almonds, fennel fronds, olive oil and garlic make a more-ish pesto that teams up very nicely with anything. What’s anything? We mixed it through roasted potatoes, yum. You can also spread it on wholegrain bread, use it as a dip with carrot sticks and celery sticks, or mix it through salads. Or just eat it as-is!
The original recipe came from Daniel Gritzer on seriouseats.com . We reduced the amount of olive oil in it to make a more spreadable paste. It’s a quick recipe, simple, and the result is delicious. If fennel fronds are not available, use dill or celery leaves.
Roasted Fennel Pesto
Ingredients:
1 cup (300g) chopped fennel bulb (approx 1 medium bulb)
3/4 cup (150g) olive oil
1/2 cup (75g) slivered almonds
3/4 cup (15g) loosely packed fennel fronds
2 medium garlic cloves, chopped roughly
1/4 tsp salt, or to taste
Method:
- Preheat oven to 200°c.
- Cut fennel into quarters. Remove the fronds and set aside. Core the fennel, and wash the bulb. Cut fennel bulb into roughly 2 cm chunks. Toss in olive oil, spread out on a lined baking tray, and roast until fennel is soft and lightly browning, about 15 min. You may need to stir the fennel for even baking.
- Spread slivered almonds on a lined baking tray and bake, stirring occasionally, about 5 min, until lightly toasted – watch them! Let fennel and almonds cool slightly.
- In a food processor, pulse the roasted fennel with the fennel fronds, garlic, and 1/2 cup olive oil until it forms a puree. Add the almonds and the remaining 1/4 cup olive oil and the salt, and pulse again until you are satisfied with the texture. Serve. Keeps in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Thanks guys for this recipe. I see fennel bulbs in the shops quite often and find myself wondering what you would do with one. Now I have an option. Will definitely try it! Blessings – Gina Taggart 🙂
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yummy
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yeah, toasting the slivered almonds makes the nutty flavour come out. It’s a nice, gentle flavour combination. We tried it with fennel fronds and dill tips – decided it was slightly better with fennel fronds, but not much difference. Still really nice.
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Sounds nice and yummy
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yes, all our tasters really enjoyed it. 🙂
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