Vegan, Succulent and Light Fennel Gratin

Sometimes I just get bored of having always the same sides. I tend to buy seasonal and local products, but sometimes I just need a change. Fennel, for instance, is a gorgeous versatile ingredient with a slight aniseed flavour, which is amazing both raw and cooked.

This amazing vegetable is full of great benefits, plus it can be really tasty. It can be used in salads, the most famous probably being sliced fennel with oranges and black olives, it’s delicious when boiled and seasoned with some olive oil, salt and pepper, and it’s amazing when oven baked. I find it lovely as an appetizer dipped in hummus or guacamole or just olive oil salt and pepper – which we call “pinzimonio”.

I decided to use Violife vegan grated cheese for this recipe, but its delicate flavour goes perfectly with parmesan or mozzarella. In half an hour, you will get a delicious crunchy crust on top of a soft fennel layer that will make you love this recipe and this vegetable.

“The fennel is beyond every other vegetable, delicious. It greatly resembles in appearance the largest size celery, perfectly white, and there is no vegetable equals it is flavour. It is eaten at dessert, crude, and with, or without dry salt, indeed I preferred it to every other vegetable, or to any fruit.”

Thomas Jefferson – Quoted in Consuming Passions, Jonathan Green