Carrot & Fennel Salad with Grapefruit Dressing
I love sweet salads, they are amongst my favorite thing to eat. They bring me to my happy place when the weather is warming up and we crave those fresher flavors. This sweet Carrot & Fennel Salad with Creamy Grapefruit Dressing will send you to salad bliss. Fennel adds a crisp bite to the salad with its pleasant anis aroma, and when shaved thinly it melds nicely with the sweet bitter flavors of the grapefruit. It’s a pure delight!
Our tastes are constantly evolving throughout the seasons. As the colder months arrive, we tend to reach for more calorie-dense foods. Likewise, as the warmer months approach, we reach for fresher ingredients. This whole week I have been making some amazing, delicious salads. Lunches and dinners alike, I love it! These days, I’ve been craving a lot more of these ingredients, but I’m not the only one, our bodies naturally crave fresher foods in the springtime.
According to a study done on the effect of light exposure on our eating habits, on average, we ate 86 more calories per day and ate more saturate and unsaturated fats during the colder months.1 This is all triggered by the amount of daylight exposure we have. Our bodies are associating daylight with this scarcity of food. So naturally, when daylight is scarce, we need more fat reserves to survive. In turn, when daylight returns, we have little need for those extra pounds, so salads become more attractive.
Full disclosure, since the pandemic, I have been struggling with weight gain. When I am stuck indoors, since our bodies naturally crave fatty foods when we are daylight deprived, I have been reaching for foods higher in fats. So, I have made a promise to myself that over the next few weeks that I would take more walks outside not only for exercise but also to curve my cravings for those fatty foods.
Shave it baby, Shave it!
You gotta shave your carrots for this! Get your mind out of the gutter! I really do mean shave your carrots. Using a Y-shaped carrot peeler for your carrots, parsnips and fennel makes all the difference in your salad. The texture is much lighter and refined compared to the bulky crunch. For this reason, I’ve included a video in the notes section of the recipe on how to properly shave your fennel using a mandolin. Alternatively, if you don’t have a mandolin, use a Y-shaped carrot peeler, as I did.
Prepping your Grapefruit
When adding grapefruit Carrot & Fennel Salad with Creamy Grapefruit Dressing, it’s definitely prettiest and more easily eaten when the tough outer white membrane of each of the sections is removed. It’s easy to do:
Firstly, using a very sharp paring knife, simply slice off the top and bottom of the fruit and stand it on one of the flat ends. Then, slice the skin and membrane from the fruit, leaving the pulp exposed. Cut segments in between the membranes of the fruit and you’re done!
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did. Have a happy, healthy appetite!
Carrot & Fennel Salad with Creamy Grapefruit Dressing
Ingredients
Carrot & Fennel Salad Ingredients
- 4 cups of lettuce chopped
- 1 cup walnuts chopped
- 2 medium-sized parsnips shaved
- 2 medium-sized carrots shaved
- 1 bulb of fennel shaved
- 1 cup canned corn
- 1 large grapefruit
Creamy Grapefruit Dressing
- ¼ cup grapefruit juice store-bought or freshly squeezed
- ½ tsp fresh rosemary finely chopped
- 3 tbsp Vegan mayo
- ½ tsp salt
Instructions
- In a large salad bow, add all of your salad ingredients except for the grapefruit.
- Using a very sharp paring knife, simply slice off the top and bottom of the grapefruit and stand it on one of the flat ends. Then, slice the skin and membrane from the fruit, leaving the pulp exposed. Cut segments in between the membranes of the fruit.
- In a small bowl, mix in all of the dressing ingredients and whisk till uniform.
- Drizzle dressing over salad and toss till well-combined. Enjoy!
Sources
1. How Wintertime Affects Our Eating Habits
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