Here’s another salad recipe to freshen up your spring menus with.

This one comes from Vancouver’s Tractor Foods, which emphasizes healthy meals and ingredients and previously shared their recipe for tahini beet salad.

This time, it's a vegetarian recipe is for celery and fennel salad, accompanied with chili lime tofu.

Celery and fennel salad

Ingredients

Salad

8 stalks of celery, sliced ¼-inch bias
1 medium bulb fennel, sliced
½ head radicchio, thinly sliced
¼ cup Italian parsley, rough chopped
1/3 cup dates, diced
1 teaspoon chili flakes (optional)
¼ cup citrus dressing

Garnish: 30 grams toasted almonds, roughly chopped

Dressing

3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 small clove garlic, minced 
2 teaspoons onion, minced
1 ½ tablespoons white balsamic vinegar 
¼ cup grapeseed oil
1 tablespoon grainy dijon 
¾ teaspoon agave
½ teaspoon salt   

Method

Prepare a sauce pan with two inches of water with steamer basket, cover, and heat over medium/high heat till simmering.

Wash fennel bulb, remove fronds, and set aside. Quarter the fennel bulb. Working with one quarter at a time, place cut side against the cutting board, and angle your knife to remove the dense, white core. Repeat with all four quarters.

Using a mandolin or knife, thinly slice fennel.

Place sliced fennel in steamer basket, cover, and let steam for five minutes, or until tender. Remove from steamer basket and plunge into ice bath to stop the cooking.

While the fennel cools, prepare the other ingredients.

Wash and trim celery ribs. Slice on a 45 degree bias, into ¼-inch thick slices. Place in large mixing bowl.

Quarter radicchio and remove the dense white core (similar to how you prepared the fennel). Thinly slice. Place in bowl with celery.

Remove parsley leaves from steams and roughly chop leaves. Place in bowl with other ingredients.

Add chili flakes, reserved fennel fronds, and chopped dates to bowl.

Remove fennel from ice bath and place in strainer to drain.

Make dressing: whisk all ingredients together in a medium sized bowl until combined. Measure ¼ cup of dressing and add to bowl.

Add drained fennel to bowl and toss all ingredients until combined. Garnish with toasted almonds. 

Chili lime tofu 

1 packages organic firm tofu

Marinade

full head of garlic, drizzle olive oil, salt and pepper
2 tablespoons avocado oil (or any other neutral oil you have on hand)
2½ teaspoons sambal olek chili paste
½ teaspoon salt
2½ teaspoons agave
1/3 cup lime juice
2½ teaspoons tamari

Method

Roast garlic: preheat oven to 375 F. Slice bottom of garlic head off to reveal the cloves inside. Take a square of tin foil and place garlic pointy side down in foil. Drizzle olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Close foil around head of garlic and place in oven for one hour.

Remove tofu from package and drain excess water. Place tofu blocks on paper towels or a clean tea towel and gently squeeze out extra moisture. Cut each block of tofu into four even slices.

Remove garlic from oven and let cool. When you can handle safely, remove foil and discard, squeeze out roasted garlic from skin, and place in blender.

Add all remaining marinade ingredients to blender and blend until smooth.

Lay tofu slices in an even layer in a container, cover with marinade, lid and place in fridge for two hours or overnight.

To serve: preheat grill or grill pan until hot. Grill tofu on both sides until crispy and warmed through. Enjoy!