Fennel is a wonderful, versatile aromatic vegetable that could be used in numerous dishes and utilizing many cooking methods. This vegetable is widely used in Italian, French and Mediterranean cooking. I have been experimenting with it for over a few years and keep stumbling on more innovative ways to cook it. From substituting onion with fennel (my wife is allergic to alum family, quite unfortunately), roasting meat on it or adding it to stews; fennel is great in many meals and will add new flavors to your culinary repertoire. There are 3 main parts of fennel: The white bulb, green stalks, and green dill-like herbs. There are also seeds of course, but they are to be bought separately as seeds.
Fresh Fennel
Here are 12 basic ways to cook Fennel.
1. Grill it
Simple and straight forward! Cut it into ½ inch wide rounds (much like you would slice an onion), brush it with olive oil and toss it on your well heated grill, or griddle. Grill on each side about 5 minutes until dark golden ridges appear. Grilling fennel with give it sweet and smoky taste.
2. Sauté it
Sauted Fennel
Same thing as with grilling: cut into either ½ inch rounds, or cut vertically into four triangular shapes, then cut each triangle into half again and sauté until golden brown on each side and soft in a tablespoon of olive oil, or oil and butter mixed together. Add a pinch of salt and pepper or season with other fresh herbs to taste.
3. Add to Soups and Stews
I have been looking for a magic solution to getting around my wife’s allergy to onion for years now. The closest I came up with is using a mixture of fennel and green cabbage in soups and stews. It definitely adds great flavor, otherwise absent without onion and comes pretty damn close in texture as well.
Sauté fennel instead of, or with onion and mirepoux in the beginning of making your soup until soft (about 10 minutes) Use similarly in stews, or cut into thicker cubes and add to slow-cooking braises. Fennel is great in braises, as it will flavor wine while its simmering.
4. Add to Stocks
Here is where you can use these seemingly useless green stalks! I save those stalks (you can freeze them) for when I make broth, cut them up into cubes, much how you would treat celery and add them to variety of stocks I make. Add to stocks together with onions, carrots, celery.
5. Roast with other vegetables
Winter and fall roasts can benefit greatly from an addition of fennel. Simply cut into any shape (I usually quarter fennel for my roasts) add potatoes, turnips, carrots, beets, mushrooms, anything else you like roasting, coat with olive oil and your favorite herbs and roast in a Dutch oven or a roasting pan for 45 minutes in the oven at 375 degrees.
6. Use in salads
Great trick to add extra crunch to your salads: Slice very thin (yes that is the trick here), or use a mandolin for best results and add to any salad. I love the addition of fennel to this simple salad:
Simple fall salad:
7. Fennel Gratin
Much like Potato Au Gratin: slice into rounds or triangles, layer in buttered earthenware dish, coat with béchamel sauce (2 tbsp butter + 3 tbsp flour + 2 cups milk, simmered 20 –25 mins), or heavy cream and gruyere & parmesan cheese, a pinch of nutmeg and thyme, repeat the process to create more layers. Generously cover the top layer with cheese and bake for 45 minutes or until soft at 400 degrees. This is a great, traditional Italian dish, often used for Christmas.
8. Use in Sauces
I often infuse my sauces (béchamel or brown sauce for instance) by adding a quarter or a half of fennel pinned with a clove and a bay leaf (this is called piquet). Reduce your stocks with a half a bulb or a few stalks of fennel prior to thickening your sauce.
9. Use as an Aromatic vegetable (to roast meat, chicken, etc with)
Roast (lift up) your meat or chicken on a layer of aromatic vegetables (onions, fennel, carrots, potatoes etc) Then use the fat soaked vegetables as a side dish along the meat. Potatoes are not aromatic actually, but are great because they soak up fat very well.
10. Use in Risotto
Fennel is great in risotto! Sauté finely diced fennel in butter or oil prior to adding rice to the pan, then cook risotto as usual (adding liquid slowly to fat coated rice). I usually add sun-dried tomatoes and pine nuts with my fennel risotto (1 ½ cup rice), cooking it in light vegetable broth (4.5 cups) and a cup of white wine (1 cup).
11. Using Herbs in dips (alike dill)
Dice the hell out of green herbs that look much like dill and use to flavor sour cream, crème fraiche, cream sauces, butters, mayonnaise and other cream, egg or yogurt based dips.
12. Using seeds
Fennel seeds are especially flavorful. They could be used to add flavor to beans, stews, roasts, tagine dishes and Indian style dishes, like vegetables or cooked garbanzo beans (chickpeas). Usually you add seeds to hot oil until they start popping or turn lightly brown. Make sure not to burn seeds. Then you can add whatever else you might be cooking: onion, beans, vegetables, etc. This method infuses the oil. Whatever you choose to use seeds for need to cook for awhile, making seeds ideal for stewed or slow-roasted dishes.
Tags: 12 Ways to Cook Fennel, Fennel, Grilled Fennel, Sauted
bbq seasoning is a secret…
Love bbq…
I have been searching the internet high @ low for different ways to cook Fennel. Your site is just what I was looking for,,,IT’S PERFECT.
Going to par cook some Fennel @ put it in with, Virgin oil, Brocolli Rabbe,garlic,sausage, @ Rigatoni, toped with Parmasean cheese
I really liked this post. Can I copy it to my site? Thank you in advance.
Hi, interest post. I’ll write you later about few questions!
I liked the post and your writing style. I’m adding you to my RSS reader.
Greetings from Tim.
It is amazing what a google search will turn up!
I was sent a fennel in a mixed box of organic veg this week and had no idea what to do with it.
Now I do!
that’s fab post, thank you.
This is just wonderful!!! Thanks for posting this 😀
Thanks for this article. It was a great help.
I bought fennel today and went to google
to see how to use. Thanks again.
Thanks for this excellent read. I absolutely enjoyed every little bit of it. I have you bookmarked and will be coming back.
A great help! A packet of organic fennel has been winking at me every time I go to the fridge saying ‘Come on loser, do something with me’. Now, after finding your article I have a host of exciting ideas, Thanks for the generous sharing.
What a great site this is exactly what I was looking for thank you so much
This is easier and surely gives comfort to internet users. Thanks for sharing. Post like this offers extremebenefit. Thank you!
After scouring through no less than 10 cookbooks looking for a ‘how to cook fennel’ I jumped on line and voila! I now have 12 ways to cook fennel. Thank you!!
great site…..we had fennel come up in our garden after receiving a load of mulch last year…..my guess is that there were seeds in the mulch. We have just identified this gorgeous fragrant plant as fennel and had no clue what to do with it…..now we do….thanks again
Excellent. Thanks so much for the post. -Kate
WOW!! loads of uses for fennel! Thank you!!
Wow! So many choises. Will try sauteed fennel with olive oil and a bit of butter. Thanks!
i love trying new methods to cook food and experiment with new veggies. i came across fennel and thought ‘how on earth do i cook you?’ and im so glad i read this guide. thank u!!!!! on my way to the kitchen.
Thanks for your help, interesting can serve cooked or raw.
Regards, Sharon.
Fantastic inspiration! Thanks so much
Great article, thank you very much!
WOW! 12 ways I now know how to eat Fennel. I have never did this before but this year I have some growing in my garden with all my herbs. I have used the seeds in a tea for stomach problems.
This is fantastic! I can’t wait to plant some from the seeds I will be getting to have more next year. I have never ever eaten Fennel. I can’t wait to try it! Thank you for posting this. Loads of help. I bookmarked to my favorites and will be back. Thank You, and God Bless You!
I’ve been staring at these fennels everytime I go to the supermarket and wondering how to cook it. Out of curiousity I bought one and still don’t know what to do with it! Haha! So I look up the web and found your post. GREAT job mate! Gotta grab my fennel and start cookin’ now!
P.s. How about rhubarb?
Thanks in advance!
Iam like many of you readers. I lik the smell of fennel and often looked at it in the store. Finally bouht some and then looked in cookbook for ways to use it. Thedifferent ways to use fennel is deligtfull and will try it this coming week. Thanks
Great tips! I got some fresh fennel in my vegie box that I got delivered and was close to throwing it out as it’s so hot at the moment I thought I could only use fennel in soups! Wow! I was wrong.. Thanks again can’t wait to try a few things out
Great website! thanks and have a happy fennel!
Thanks you sooooooo much! This is a great site. We tried the sauted recipe with some left over lamb and chicken tonight. It was delicious!
I’m not sure if my husband is allergic to or has a sensitivity to onions. They really upset his stomach, etc. So for years I have been cooking onions on the side to add to my own bowl of soup or any other dish I cook with which I prefer onions. I landed here because last year I saw a cooking show featuring a stalk vegetable roasted with chicken and other veggies. I couldn’t remember what the stalk veggie was called, but landed here after some google searches and the veggie was fennel. So in a few minutes I will be heading to the grocery store to purchase a fennel, some other veggies and a chicken for tonight’s dinner. Can’t wait to try it and now I have this site bookmarked I will be tying it in a dozen ways. Thanks.
Really great ideas for cooking fennel, I had no idea how to use it until today. Thank you
Bought a fennel today as I’ve always wanted to try one since I love the seeds, but wasn’t sure what to do with it – going to try the risotto for my company coming for dinner tonight and roasted with veggies tomorrow for family. Thanks for the great ideas!
Hi, I am trying to find a recipe to make Fennel Cello….please help
Hey Vicky – Thanks for your comment, and sorry for my late response. My wife is actually allergic to onion and garlic (whole alum family in fact – scallion, shallot, etc) so majority of my recipes on this blog avoid or minimize the use of onion (which i personally like quite a bit) But in the past 10 or so years I really learned to avoid or ‘substitute’ well for onion and garlic without compromising on flavor or richness of food. It really can be done. Combination of fennel and cabbage actually kind of is the closest I came up with in substituting for onion – cabbage has that similar texture and consistency when cooked down and fennel is a decent flavor substitute. Adding a bit of spice to this wouldn’t hurt (cayenne, perhaps herbs, etc) Good Luck and thanks for reading! Andy
Exactly what I was looking for – I am on an elimination diet at the moment and have to eliminate onions and garlic. Fantastic to learn what else I can substitute.
fennel is wonderful for stomach problems…a nice easy salad is chopped raw fennel…chashew…and fresh chopped pineapple…very nice
Thanks for this…I have just bought Fennel and came on Google to see how to cook it so thanks, now I know.
Never tryed Fennel but will be doing most of the 12 recipes in the next few weeks
Found a lovely feathery plant in my garden and have found out that it is Fennel! I have never used it in cooking but thanks to your excellent site I am going to try one of the recipes tonight. Thank you.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I am making fennel and tomato soup (that will be the second time in our lives we have eaten fennel) and only have enough homegrown Roma tomatoes for half the recipe (because the dog ate them…grrr). Was looking for ways to use the other half of fennel bulb. Now I need to head for the shops for more fennel. Seems like you have helped a lot of people by helping your wife. What a blessing you are!!! cheers!
Great post and you do a great job in detailing the various options available. So much so, I linked to it on my site
Tasted slivers of baby fennel in a salad with orange segments etc served with duck while holidaying in NZ. Loved it! Bought a large fennel today and a quick search showed me I can use this in salad as well as in other ways. Hurray for the net. Didn’t seem to have a lot of taste though . . . might be better cooked. Many thanks.
I bought Fennel as part of this 48 hr cleanse I was going to do. I ended up experimenting with all of the vegetables and grilling the Fennel as suggested on this site. I must admit it was delicious. I had it grilled, mixed in with my Kale!
Wow, thankyou for your ideas…i too am intollerant to onions, and find most of my meals boring without it, and i am so excited that I can use fennel in the same way
Wish everyone could be as informative as yourself. Interesting and factual ideas, short and concise. Now back to the Sunday roast preparation with addtional knowledge. Thank you
Great info even 4 yrs later! Thank you!
Thank you so much for this helpful ideas! I purchased my first anise fennel and leeks today. Looking forward to cooking with them.
Man, I am so glad I came across your post. I have been puzzling about fennel for awhile and now can’t wait to try it. I have volunteer fennel in my garden, it grows anywhere it seems, and towers over my head. I love the licorice-anise smell of the leaves, and sometimes I chew on some for a breath freshener. The bulbs, however, are small and not as attractive as what I find in the grocery. I love finding new things to add to my culinary repertoire, and fennel sounds so versatile. Thanks for your very useful information.
Try adding the sauteed fennel to cooked basmati rice. Stir the fennel through add about 250gm baby Spinach and put the lid back on the pan for 5 minues. stir it altogether and serve immediately. Goes well with anything that goes with rice really, I use this dish a lot… Enjoy
Thank you so much ! A whole new riff on fennel!
I’m heading right back to the kitchen to incorporate all of the above into my cooking ‘repetoire’.
A great help! As I have only cooked with fennel once , combining it with salmon.
Thankyou for the great info…I have just been given a fennel today, and you are the first place I saw come up, and now I definately have a the knowledge to cook it,….cheers
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