Fennel green is healthy and brings a lot of aroma. Instead of throwing it away, you can use it to flavor many dishes. You can find out how to use it and how to make a delicious fennel green pesto here.
Almost all parts of fennel are edible: apart from the hard stalk, you can use everything it has to offer – even the green fennel. It’s too good to end up in the trash. Because fennel green not only tastes very spicy, but is also healthy.
In Germany, the fennel season runs from June to November. Outside this period, the vegetables come from Mediterranean countries such as Spain and Italy.
Fennel green is so healthy
Fennel is considered an extremely healthy vegetable. It contains many minerals such as calcium, potassium, magnesium and iron, which, among other things, ensure strong nails, healthy hair and strong bones. In addition, it provides vitamins A, C, and B, as well as essential oils.
A study found that there are even more minerals in the green fennel than in the tuber. In addition, fennel green contains omega-3 fatty acids, including α-linolenic acid, which according to the study should have anti-cancer properties.
Various essential oils have also been detected in fennel greens, including anethole, which is considered to be expectorant and slightly antibacterial.
100 grams of fennel green have the following nutritional values:
Energy: 84 kcal
Carbohydrates: 18.44 g
Protein: 1.16g
Fat: 0.6g
Here’s how you can use fennel greens
Especially in summer you can get particularly fresh fennel from the region. Not only the tuber is then suitable for many delicious dishes, you can also process the fennel green. We present you a recipe for fennel green pesto. In addition to the pesto, you can also try the following ideas with fennel greens:
Use it like parsley and season fish and meat dishes with chopped fennel greens. But the spicy aroma also goes well with salads and vegetables such as kohlrabi and cauliflower.
Top various dishes with fennel greens, for example bread topped with cucumber.
Try a classic Italian dish with fennel greens: pasta with fennel.
Tip: Find out the right dosage of fennel herb. The intense taste can quickly ensure that other flavors are masked.
Save the fennel greens
Like any herb, you should also use fennel greens as soon as possible, because it tastes the most intense fresh. If the herb looks limp and wilted, it is no longer fresh. However, if you have more fennel greens than you can use right away, you can store them for a few days. This is the best way to do it:
Pluck the fennel greens from the stalks.
Fill an oblong container with cold water and place the fennel greens in it.
Seal the container and put it in the fridge – but not in the back where it’s coldest. There it can get too cold for the fennel greens.
Alternatively, you can freeze fennel greens:
Pick off the green fennel, chop it finely and fill it into ice cube trays.
Fill them up with oil and freeze them.
You can thaw the ice cubes for salad dressings, for example.
Recipe for fennel green pesto
Ingredients:
150 g green fennel
3 EL pine nuts, toasted
20 g Pecorino (optional yeast flakes as a vegan alternative)
100 mlorganic olive oil
salt to taste
Directions:
Wash the fennel greens and dry them well with a clean kitchen towel. Pick the fennel greens from the stalks and chop them finely.
Finely chop the pine nuts and grate the pecorino cheese. You can also use yeast flakes as a vegan alternative to pecorino.
Mix together the fennel greens, cheese or nutritional yeast, pine nuts, and oil. Season the pesto with salt.
Pour the pesto into a sealable jar and keep it in the fridge. Tip: If the aniseed flavor of the fennel herb in the pesto is too intense for you, you can replace half with parsley or carrot greens.