This Fennel Celery Salad comes together quickly and has such a delicious light lemon vinaigrette and wonderful crunch. It’s the perfect side salad for rich and hearty dishes like pasta or braised short ribs.
Table of Contents
Can I just say that this salad makes me so happy? I love it for its crunchiness, its tanginess, its easiness. Seriously, this salad takes all of 10 minutes to prepare.
Ingredients needed
- Fennel – You’ll need 1 large bulb of fennel for this recipe. I like to garnish my salad with the fennel fronds too.
- Celery
- Pine Nuts – You can also use walnuts, pecans, or chopped almonds.
- Parsley
- Lemon Juice – Fresh squeezed. If you like your salad extra tangy, add in some lemon zest too.
- Olive Oil
- Parmesan – You can also use feta cheese, blue cheese, or pecorino romano.
- Salt + Pepper
How to make it
- Toast those pine nuts – Get a skillet going on medium-high and toast them until they’re golden brown. Be sure to keep a bit of a close eye on them so they don’t burn. It will take about 5-10 minutes.
- While the pine nuts are toasting, thin slice the fennel and celery. I’ve got a mandolin at home, but it find it pretty easy to thin slice the veggies just using a sharp knife.
- Then toss it all together – Squeeze in some fresh lemon juice, drizzle some good-quality olive oil over the top.
- To finish it all off – A big handful of nutty parmesan cheese and those beautifully golden pine nuts.
This fennel and celery salad is so fresh and bright and crunchy. The little bits of celery and sharp fennel blend so nicely with the light citrus dressing, and that shaved Parmesan and the toasted pine nuts add a wonderful buttery, nuttiness.
Recipe FAQs
Yes! Raw fennel is delicious in salads. It has a crunch similar to celery, and is refreshing and delicious!
To shave fennel, first trim off the long fennel stalks. We won’t be using those, just the bulb. Cut the bulb into quarters and remove the core by cutting on a bias. Then, using a thin knife, slice your fennel into paper-thin slices. You can also use a mandolin to do this.
Fennel is light and refreshing, with a flavor similar to anise or black licorice. It is refreshing and crunchy.
How to make ahead & store
Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three days. It will maintain its crunch. However, for the ultimate freshness, just reserve the lemon juice and olive oil and toss everything together at the end.
Topping ideas
To make this salad more hearty, try topping it with some air fryer shrimp, sous vide salmon, or chicken breasts. You can also pile on some of these homemade croutons.
What to serve with it
I love to serve this shaved fennel salad alongside rich and hearty dishes like my Italian Sunday Gravy, this Lemon Mascarpone Risotto, or this Easy Chicken Piccata. It’s also delicious paired with soup recipes like this Instant Pot Minestrone or Lasagna Soup.
This salad is also great because you can make it ahead of time, which means it’s a perfect side dish for bringing to a potluck or packing along for lunches.
Wine pairings
- This fennel celery salad would pair nicely with a Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Gris. These wines have a herbaceous, mineral quality that pairs amazingly well with this salad.
More salad recipes
More fennel recipes
- MORE → 30+ fennel recipes to check out!
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Full Recipe
Shaved Fennel Salad
Ingredients
- ¼ cup pine nuts
- 1 large fennel bulb (very thinly sliced)
- 5 celery stalks (very thinly sliced)
- ½ cup fresh flat-leaf parsley (chopped)
- 1/4 cup lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- Kosher salt and pepper (to taste )
- 1/4 cup shaved Parmesan
Instructions
- Heat a skillet over medium high heat and add the pine nuts. Toast for 5-10 minutes, until golden brown, stirring occasionally and keeping an eye on them so that they don’t burn.
- Meanwhile, thin slice your fennel and celery and chop the parsley – Add them all to a large bowl.
- Toss fennel, celery and parsley with lemon juice and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper, to taste, and sprinkle with shaved Parmesan and toasted pine nuts.
Notes
- Unlike lettuce based salads, this salad retains its great crunch for a couple of days, so be sure to save any leftovers!
- Store any leftover pine nuts in the freezer – They’ll stay fresh for much longer this way.
Nutrition
This celery fennel salad post was originally published in 2014. It was updated in 2023 to revise the photographs and content. The recipe remains the same. Enjoy!
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