Shaved Fennel and Celery Salad

This Shaved Fennel and 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.

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.

Here’s how to make this super easy fennel and celery salad:

• 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. I love to serve it alongside rich and hearty dishes like my Italian Sunday Gravy, this Lemon Mascarpone Risotto, or this Easy Chicken Piccata.

This salad is also great because you can make it ahead of time, which means it’s perfect for bringing to a potluck or packing along for lunches. I would say that the taste is best the day you make it, but it still maintains its crunchy bite for a few days. If you’d like to make it way in advance, say a few days prior, I would just reserve the lemon juice and olive oil and toss that in at the end.

Shaved Fennel and Celery Salad

Course: Salad

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Servings: 4 servings

Calories: 221 kcal

Author: Adapted from Bon Appétit

This Shaved Fennel and 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.  

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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

1. 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. 

2. Meanwhile, thin slice your fennel and celery and chop the parsley - Add them all to a large bowl. 

3. 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.
   

Recipe 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. 

If you loved this Fennel and Celery Salad recipe I would appreciate it so much if you would give it a star review! Also, be sure to snap a picture of your finished salad and share it with me on Instagram using the hashtag #platingsandpairings.

This recipe was originally published in December 2014. It was updated in February 2018 to revise the photographs. The recipe remains the same. 

Wine Pairings for Shaved Fennel and Celery Salad:

• This 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.

Looking for more fennel recipes? Be sure to give these a try too:

Sausage & Fennel Ragout

Seared Scallops with Fennel & Blood Orange

Duck & Fennel Cassoulet

Salty Dog with Fennel and Rosemary

Fennel and Chickpea Salad