Summer Fennel Salad with Melon

5 from 2 votes

This Summer Fennel Salad with Melon and crispy garlic and capers is the perfect refreshing summer salad that can be made in less than 10 minutes, with mostly simple pantry ingredients and fresh summery fruits & veggies. This is the best fennel salad you will make this summer!

Prep Time5

Cook Time3

Course: Appetizer, Salad

Cuisine: American

Diet: Gluten Free

Servings: servings

Calories: 428kcal

Author: Dalya Rubin

Ingredients

For the Salad

2 bulbs fennel chopped into large chunks
½ small Honeydew or Cantaloupe melon or Pure Flavor® Solara™ Melon (as used here) peeled and sliced into semi-circles
½ medium purple onion sliced thin and soaked in cold water
2 tablespoons capers
6 cloves fresh garlic thinly sliced
4 sprigs fresh mint
Hot sauce of choice to drizzle (optional)
2 tablespoons olive oil to fry the capers and garlic

For the Dressing

1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoon lime juice
2 tablespoon avocado oil
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes optional

Instructions

Arrange chopped fennel, melon and red onion slices on a large serving plate. Set aside.
In a small pan on the stove, add the 2 tablespoons oil along with garlic slices. Cook on a medium-low flame so that the garlic starts to make sizzle sounds and turn golden. Flip garlic pieces once one side is golden. As garlics are halfway cooked, add the capers into the pan and cook another 1-2 minutes until crispy. Use kitchen tongs or a slotted spoon to transfer the crispy garlic and capers onto a paper towel lined plate. Allow to cool & turn off the heat. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together all of the dressing ingredients: honey, oil, lime juice, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes.
Before serving, sprinkle the fried garlic and capers onto the serving plate of salad and drizzle with the dressing. Garnish with broken up pieces of mint and a drizzle of your favorite hot sauce.

Notes

Sometimes fennel bulbs can be really small. Use 3 bulbs of fennel in this recipe if yours are tiny!
I find that using half of a small melon goes a long way, so you can save the other half for weekday snacking. Yum!
I love adding a drizzle of hot sauce to this salad right before serving. Frank's Hot Sauce is my favorite because it's very mild and flavorful!
For the dressing, you may prefer 1 teaspoon of salt, but first start with ½ teaspoon and taste to see what you think.
Storage: This salad is best served the day of creation. Everything can generally be prepared ahead of time stored in separate containers. I wouldn't cut the melon until the day of though since it can get soft and mushy in the fridge overnight if it's a bit overripe.

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