Readers of The Bitten Word cooked every recipe in the September 2013 Bon Appetit magazine. Here's their take on Fennel and Orange Salad with Lemon-Ginger Vinaigrette.
Karen Capucilli: This dish was a nice accompaniment to a classic hamburger / hotdog extended family BBQ. I did not have access to a Farmer's market when I shopped for this recipe and after trying a couple of stores, one gourmet market and one huge supermarket, I was unable to find the exact greens the recipe called for. After some internet research, I substituted some fresh, tender Kale with satisfactory results. This dish was good but not great. In retrospect, it could have used a salty element, like crumbled feta, or a small amount of bacon. It was also a bit labor intensive for what it was. If I'm going to deal with zesting two kinds of fruit and ginger, and carefully sectioning oranges, I want it to be worth it in terms of taste. This was not terrible, but it didn't deliver big dividends either.
Chris: The preparation was simple enough, with the only difficult step being removing the membranes from the orange slices (I imagine this would be easier with practice). I thought the dressing was especially nice, and I'll probably steal that in the future.The salad didn't work very well in execution though. I worry that I may have used too many mustard greens, but I suspect even if I had been more rigorous in only using the amount called for, it would have still been problematic. They were just too tough! In addition, the raw fennel was more pungent than I care for. One tip that I think would help would be to dress the salad half an hour to an hour before dinner. We do that with kale salads, and it really helps soften up the leaves.
Jessica: Great summer salad that paired well with fish (as they suggested). The individual flavors of the mustard greens and fennel weren't as strong when paired with the citrus vinaigrette. The orange segments added brightness and tied the flavors together.
Kris: I was excited to try this because I hadn't used fennel or mustard greens before. I don't like licorice flavor so I was afraid I wouldn't like the fennel but the mustard greens are so spicy I didn't notice it too much. I will make more of the yummy dressing and use it with the extra mustard greens and oranges I bought, maybe adding some other greens.
Dana: I could not find mustard greens, but baby kale made a great stand-in. To be more widely accepted (to my guests), I would use a less hearty green such as arugula. All-in-all, I give this dish a "thumbs up"!
Jackie: Vinaigrette fabulous, though ginger was quite subtle. Mustard greens overpowered other ingredients. Fun to participate!
Amy: This salad was great for getting me out of my "bagged spring mix and Trader Joe's cranberry dressing" salad rut. Yes, it was a lot of preparation for a week night, but the dressing was extremely flavorful and really paired well with the fennel, mustard greens and orange segments. I would definitely make this again for a weekend dinner party and it definitely makes me see the beauty of using mustard greens for a salad instead of just cooking them as a side.
Get the Fennel and Orange Salad with Lemon-Ginger Vinaigrette recipe at Bon Appétit