Fennel is a vegetable that can be eaten in both raw and cooked forms. Its light green leaves and licorice-like flavor can add an interesting, subtle sweetness to your dishes.
When preparing fennel, it’s important to cut it properly. Learn how to trim the bulb, remove its core, and slice it into wedges, dices, slices, or strips.
Root
Fennel is a complex, licorice-flavored vegetable that can be eaten raw or cooked. It’s a member of the carrot family, and like its cousins, it can be used for sofrito (the celery/onion/carrot minced mix that gets sauteed in butter or oil).
Fennel also works in soups, stews, and as a topping for pizza. It has a crisp texture and a licorice flavor that mellows as it cooks.
Its stalks are tough, but the bulb is tender and sweet. The fronds, which look similar to dill, can be finely chopped or added to recipes as garnish.
To cut the root of a fennel bulb, use a sharp chef’s knife. Make several evenly spaced horizontal cuts, taking care not to cut through the root end. Next, hold the knife perpendicular to the cutting board and make several vertical cuts, again taking care not to cut through the root end. Evenly slice across previous cuts to dice the bulb.
Stalks
Fennel is a vegetable that has a mild licorice flavor and crunchy texture. It can be eaten raw or cooked and is delicious in soups, stews, and salads.
The stalks are tough and fibrous, so you will want to remove them from the bulb before you cut it. Trimming ensures that the fennel will not fall apart and make it more difficult to slice.
Before cutting, rinse the fennel and wipe off any dirt or soil. Place the fennel bulb on the cutting board so its side faces your knife and its root end is opposite the stalks.
Once the stalks are trimmed, cut about halfway down from the bulb and then slice it into quarters. This will expose the core, which you can remove and discard if you like.
Once you’ve removed the core, cut away any wilted or discolored layers. Then, cut the fennel into thin strips or slices to add to your salad or as a garnish on other dishes.
Bulb
Fennel is a flowering bulbous vegetable that’s part of the carrot family. It’s a good choice for soups, stews and roasted vegetables.
To cut the bulb, start by trimming off about 1/4 inch from the bottom of the fennel. This will remove any wilted or discolored outer layers.
Next, trim off the stalks and fronds at the top of the bulb. Save these for other uses, such as a garnish or to add to soup stock.
With the fronds and stalks removed, you should have a clean bulb with a hard root end at the bottom. Once again, rinse the fennel bulb under cool water to remove any soil or debris.
Sliced fennel adds a crunchy texture and sweetness to salads and other dishes that don’t require cooking. It’s also a tasty addition to cooked recipes that use mirepoix or sofrito, where it works as a substitute for celery.
Wedges
Fennel is a great addition to salads, but it can also be used in cooked dishes to get bigger punches of flavor. You can cut the fennel into wedges to make it easier to eat, or you can dice it crossways for larger chunks that cooks can use in stews and braises.
Regardless of which method you choose, it’s important to remove the outer layer of the bulb before chopping or slicing. The outer layer of the fennel can brown and crack, and this is not something you want to deal with.
To remove the outer layer, use a vegetable peeler to pass it down and around the fennel from top to bottom in even strokes. Using this technique, you’ll be able to remove all of the brown and discolored parts.