I made a summer salad with roasted peaches and shaved fennel a few months back and decided that I could use the same basic premise for a nice salad using ingredients readily available during fall.  Kale and fennel are both widely available at any grocery store or farmer’s market at the time of year and orchard apples are plentiful right now.  I bought my apples at Vito’s in Berkeley Heights…they have a great selection and let’s face it, Vito is a hoot so it’s pretty fun to run over there.  At any rate, you can have this salad done relatively quickly given it’s served warm.  The apples take 10-15 minutes to roast and you can have the kale wilted and the fennel shaved during the roasting time.  So it’s not too bad.  It’s quite tasty as the apples bring some sweetness and the fennel tempers that a bit with its’ light anise flavor.  The kale anchors the whole thing with its’ sturdy earthiness.  Recipe follows after the jump…

Ingredients:

4 Apples, halved and cored (I used Honeycrisp)

1 Bulb Fennel

1 Bunch of Kale

1 Lemon

2-3 Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar

Olive oil

Kosher Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
• While the oven is preheating, cut lemon in half. Then cut an apple in half (going one apple at a time), take the lemon and rub it all over the cut side of the apple lightly squeezing a bit of juice on the apple as you go (this prevents the apple from turning brown).
• Core the two apple halves (I used a melon baller for this). Once one apple has been halved, rubbed with lemon juice, and then cored, move on to the next one and so on until all four are finished.
• Gather a baking sheet. If you have parchment paper, place some parchment paper on the sheet (if you don’t have it, don’t worry, just proceed without it, knowing it will likely cook slightly faster).
• Drizzle a bit of olive oil over the prepared baking sheet and then place apples in sheet. Rub the apples with the olive oil so that each apple is coated (you won’t need a lot of olive oil…maybe a couple tablespoons give or take depending on the size of your apples).
• Salt and pepper the appels and place in the preheated oven. Bake for 10 minutes.  If the apples are cooked through with a slight resistance when pierced with a fork, they are done. If they are not done, cook another 5 minutes or so.
• Remove from oven and allow to cool on the sheet tray.
• While the apples are cooking, gather the kale and the remove the ribs from the leaves. Wash the kale and do not dry it.
• Heat a large skillet over medium high heat for a couple of minutes. Add in a bit of olive oil to just barely cover the pan and then add the kale (the water on the leaves remaining from the washing will cause splattering so beware of that).  Using tongs, flip the kale as it cooks until it is all wilted, about 3 minutes or so.  Once wilted, remove immediately and set aside.
• Take the fennel and remove the core. Thinly slice the fennel (as thin as you can get.  If you have a mandolin, use that.  If not use a very sharp knife and carefully cut the fennel as thin as possible.)  Then take a few of the fennel fronds (the leafy green part on top) and chop coarsely.
• Place fennel and fronds in bowl and toss with a bit of olive oil until just coated. Season with kosher salt and pepper.
• Once all three components are completed, Place a couple tablespoons of olive oil and a tablespoon of the apple cider vinegar over the kale. Toss to coat.  Taste and if necessary add a bit more oil or vinegar as necessary to suit your taste.  Season with kosher salt and pepper.

To Plate:  Using a set of tongs, take kale and place on a platter.  Then add the apples placing them oven the kale.  Finally top the apples and kale with the thinly sliced fennel.

Serve while warm.  Serves 4 comfortably as a starter for a meal.