My Love Letter to Fennel
fennel white bean soup, sweet fennel beef sausage, and other fennel-y things
If you’ve followed me for a bit, you know that fennel is a recurring theme in my recipes. Fennel slaw, fennel soup, fennel seeds, I love every iteration! So consider this column my love letter to all things fennel.
Brothy Fennel White Bean Soup
First up, this fennel white bean soup.
Think creamy butter beans and Yukon gold potatoes, paired with sautéed fennel and onion, in a garlicky, aromatic broth that’s addictingly good! And like all good soups, this one keeps getting better the longer it sits, making it the perfect soup to meal-prep for the week ahead.
I used both fennel bulb and ground fennel seeds in this for all that fennel flavor. Quick tip: blitzing the fennel seeds into a rough powder (I used a spice grinder for this) makes them even more aromatic.
I love serving this soup with minced chives and toasted, heavily buttered sourdough bread (homemade, of course). Occasionally, I’ll throw in homemade sweet fennel beef sausage (recipe below) to bulk up this soup even more.
Homemade Fennel Beef Sausage
There are endless applications for ground beef, but these homemade sweet fennel beef sausages are my go-to when I want something quick and easy. The flavor profile is definitely fennel-forward, with a touch of sweetness from the honey and heat from the Aleppo pepper. Couldn’t love these more!
Love to slice up any leftover sausage, reheat them in my toaster oven, and then add them to the fennel soup. Reheating the sliced sausage in the toaster oven gets all the crags and edges of the sausage super crispy - it’s heaven!
Quick note on the ground beef. Sourcing quality meat is so important to me; we have two gals that are local to us that we get our meat (beef, chicken, and lamb) from. The taste, quality, and absolutely everything about their meat is amazing!
Anywho, dropping the recipe for these sausages below!
More Fennel-y Things
For my fellow fennel-obsessed folks looking for more fennel recipes, linking my two favorite salads that are basically just another excuse to eat copious amounts of fennel (and also incorporate some citrus).
That’s all for this week!
-Yasmeen
Made this yesterday! So yummy. Do you have o plans on adding nutritional content for each recipe?