Today’s recipe features fennel bulb, which Italian cooks use raw and cooked in side dishes, salads, pastas, and risottos.
If you are not partial to the mild, licorice-like flavor of fennel bulb, you could substitute radicchio or cabbage.
To lend this dish more color and flavor, add a handful of baby spinach or other greens to the cannellini beans 2-3 minutes before the end of cooking time.
Roasted or Grilled Alaskan Halibut with Fennel and Cannellini Beans
Serves 4
4 (6 oz each) fillets wild Alaskan halibut
Finely grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
Sea salt and organic ground black pepper
1 oz butter
1 tbsp organic extra virgin olive oil
1 bulb fennel, finely sliced
2 14oz cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 tsp vegetable stock powder or ½ vegetable stock cube
2 tbsp capers
2 tbsp roughly chopped flat leaf parsley
Handful baby spinach (optional)
- Preheat oven to 400 F, or preheat a grill to medium-high
- Arrange the halibut fillets on a greased baking sheet (or cover a grill rack with a fish grate and place fillets on top). Sprinkle with the juice from half the lemon. Season with salt and pepper, and share half the butter between them. Roast or grill for 6-8 minutes (turn once if grilling).
- Meanwhile, heat the remaining butter with the olive oil in a large frying pan. Add the fennel and cook it for 2-3 minutes, until softened and beginning to brown.
- Tip the cannellini beans into the pan with the fennel. Add the lemon rind and remaining lemon juice with the stock powder or cube and a splash of hot water. Cook over a medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, for 4-5 minutes.
- Share the bean mixture between four warmed plates or shallow bowls. Arrange the halibut fillets on top, then scatter the capers and parsley over them. Serve immediately.
Source: Vital Choice Seafoods
