The mild aniseed taste of fennel, the saltiness of gouda cheese and the sweetness of apple, contrasted with the mild bitterness of chicory makes this incredibly moreish and I bet you won’t be able to stop picking at it!

This salad is pulled together with a delightfully tangy lemon dressing with just a touch of tarragon – you are going to love this, and it can be served all year round.

Mr NatureDoc, Christopher, rustled this salad up for me once while I was feeling grotty from Covid, and it was just so good and cheered me up so much. We have been eating it on repeat ever since and it is a proper feel-good salad.

It is a gut-friendly salad as the chicory leaves and pecans are both rich in prebiotics and the fennel is settling for a gassy tummy. Apple skins contain akkermansia which is an important friendly gut bacterium for good metabolic health. Gouda cheese is very low in lactose.

See the lower-histamine, dairy-free and nut-free options in the notes below.

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Chicory, Fennel, Gouda & Apple Salad

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Prep Time 10

Course Main Courses, Salads, Side Dishes

Servings

Suitable for Special Diet (or adaptable) Dairy-free, Egg-free, Gluten-free, Grain-free, Low-histamine, Vegetarian

Ingredients

2 heads Chicory (red)
1 bulb Fennel (fronds reserved)
1 Apple
100 g Gouda Cheese
50 g Pecan Nuts

Dressing

1 tbsp Olive Oil
1 tbsp Lemon Juice
1 tsp Honey
1 tsp Mustard (wholegrain or Dijon)
0.25 tsp Tarragon (dried or fresh)

Instructions

Firstly, make the dressing. In a jar, combine the olive oil, lemon juice, honey, mustard and tarragon, along with salt and pepper. Screw on the lid and shake well to emulsify. Set aside.
Separate the leaves of the red chicory, slice the fennel and apple, cube the cheese. Place in a salad bowl and scatter over the pecans. Drizzle the dressing over the salad, then finally garnish with the reserved fennel fronds.

Notes

For the cheese, you can use any cheese you like. I love the nutty caramel notes of gouda, but you can also try a hard or soft goat’s cheese, shaved sheep’s pecorino or parmesan, blue cheese or even cubes of cheddar – they would all be delicious!
You can omit the cheese if you are dairy-free and add in some shredded chicken or smoked duck instead.
The pecans can be switched to walnuts or pistachios. Switch the pecans to pumpkin seeds if you need to be nut-free.
If you are very sensitive to histamine, then leave out the lemon juice – but most people can tolerate a little lemon juice.

Note from Christopher: This is based on a salad I used to love as a child in France. In its simplest form, it’s just chicory, apple and semi-hard cheese with whatever vinaigrette happens to be around. I always cut chicory sideways as I remember being taught salads should be prepared already broken up into small enough pieces that a lady could elegantly eat it with only a fork if she wanted to. If you are lucky, you may find mustard already flavoured with tarragon, but sadly the one I used has been discontinued.

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