VEGAN FENNEL & CELERY SAUCE SPLIT WITH DILL OIL

I absolutely adore this sauce, it is a walk in the past for me as my grandmother always cooked fennel in butter with salt and those were foodie core memories for me. When fennel is caramelised in the oven it released a sweet tangy taste, the celery is a natural addition of salt, its is such an over looked ingredient, often looking sad in the fridge. This sauce, split with the dill oil, is a show stopper.

TIPS:

• Best use tinned coconut milk as like butter it hardens when cooled. The recipe sauce will come thick as it can also be used a spread.

• Put tinned coconut in fridge if you live in a warm country so the cream is divided from the water.

• For a sauce like consistency like in my Insta video you add plant based milk.

• You can use wilting and sad fennel, celery and dill for this recipe, avoid food waste!

• Use good quality oils if you can, better for the health!

• Removing the stringy part of the celery is a plus for a smoother sauce but not necessary. (Check how to in the vid)

• Follow your cooking intuition, if the veg in oven looks golden, soft and ready take it out prematurely, in cooking you got to follow your nose and eyes.

INGREDIENTS: Serves 4

FENNEL & CELERY SAUCE:

• Fennel - 1 medium (300g)

• Celery - 200 g

• Coconut Milk - 1 tin (the cream part only)

• Butter - 20 g (I used vegan one)

• Garlic cloves with skin on - 2 large or 3 medium

• Water - 5 tbsp about 50 ml

• Lemon - 1/4 juice

• Maldon Salt

• Plant Based Milk

DILL OIL:

• Evo Oil - 150 ml

• Dill - 20 g ( I use the stems too)

• Maldon Salt

METHOD:

1. Put oven on at 180* degrees.

2. Optional step - remove stringy part from celery sticks. This step ensures an extra smooth sauce.

3. Roughly chop both the fennel and the celery. Add to a medium sized oven dish.
   

4. Put the butter in an oven dish and slide in oven to melt.

5. Add the chopped veg and the garlic cloves (skin on) in the oven dish with a good pinch of salt.
   

6. Insert in oven and cook for 35 min or until golden, soft and caramelised.
   

7. Intuitive cooking tip: forget about the time if it looks like they are soft and gently browned, all ovens differ with heat strength. Follow your instincts we don’t want dry overcooked veg for this)
   

8. Let veg cool for a few min while you open the coconut can and remove only the cream part, I do this directly from tin to blender with a spoon, some coconut water is fine but we want to avoid using too much.
   

9. Prepare your blender ( I used a large jug)

10. Add the veg with all the juices, squeeze the garlic out of the skins directly in the blender by pushing with your fingers, add the water, lemon juice and coconut cream.

11. Blitz for 1 min on high speed.
    

12. Add salt to your own taste.
    

13. Now the sauce is thick, I would reserve some in a jar and let it set, I will become wonderful and creamy, perfect for spreading over crostini!

Now onto the DILL OIL:

1. Put dill, oil and salt in blender and blitz at high speed until fully incorporated and a wonderful colour is achieved.

2. You can strain it with a super fine mesh to get rid of the solids for the more sophisticated method. This method if done properly will also add shelf life to your oil, but this quantity will be used quickly in my household. I often skip this part as I am a Tuscan rural cook and I like to stick to my roots, in tuscan we say "Cucina Casalinga" ;)

FINISH THE SAUCE:

1. Put the fennel and celery sauce in a sauce pan, add a few tbsp of milk ( I used neutral plant based one, do not use a sweet one!) until you reach a consistency like a gravy. Should be running off the spoon smoothly but still maintaining a creamy consistency just like in the video.

2. Pour the creamy sauce to a bowl and add a couple of tbsp of the dill oil in, gently swirl until it has spread but not incorporated too much. The aim here is to split the sauce not to emulsify the two.

Please let me know in the comments your thoughts. and most importantly enjoy!