At Thanksgiving or Christmas, this salad would be a welcome addition to any dinner table.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Total Time: | 20 mins |
| Servings: | 20 |
| Yield: | 20 servings |
Ingredients
- ½ cup chopped dried cranberries
- ¼ cup red wine vinegar
- ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 ¼ teaspoons salt
- 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 6 bunches watercress – rinsed, dried and trimmed
- 3 bulbs fennel – trimmed, cored and thinly sliced
- 3 small heads radicchio, cored and chopped
- 1 cup pecan halves, toasted
Instructions
- In a bowl, combine the cranberries, red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, garlic and salt. Whisk in the olive oil.
- In a large salad bowl, combine the watercress, fennel, radicchio and pecans. Stir the vinaigrette and pour over salad. Toss well and serve at once.
Reviews
This was a great salad and I got to use up the fennel in my fridge. Due to the quarantine, I had to substitute lots of items but the dressing is so terrific it all came together nicely. Thank you!
Great dressing, loved the fennel.
Outstanding! Everyone loved it.
I made it for Christmas Eve dinner to go with my home made Lasagna and it was a hit, even for my two year old grandson. The dressing is a winner, and it is also good as a dip for bread. So I will be making more of the dressing and will bottled it and make it as a holiday gift. Thank you for sharing the recipe
Very good. I used arugula as the main salad base and added shaved carrots.
This salad was delicious! I scaled it down using only one fennel bulb and one bunch of watercress. I ended up eating the entire thing by myself it was that good! The only change was that I added some blue cheese instead of olives for the salty component, and orange pieces instead of cranberries. The blue cheese went really well with the fennel and sweet orange.
Outstanding flavors! Had to substitute watercress and pecans with arugula and glazed walnuts. I also was generous with the garlic.
The combination of flavors are great but I used this recipe as a starting point. I modified it as follows to serve 6: 1 fennel bulb, 2 stalks celery, 1 bag shredded red cabbage, pistachios toasted, fennel seeds toasted, and a little blue cheese tossed in at the end. Rave reviews.
Fabulous! The did not have radicchio, so sadly had to omit. Can not wait to make it again!! I reduced the servings to 5, but the dressing ingredients did not change, so I have tons of leftover dressing. I will make this again!
This was excellent! I live by myself so I actually made 1/6 of the recipe. Makes quite a bit for a single gal but I kept the dressing in a jar instead of putting it all on the salad as I knew I’d be eating it the next day.
This is a great base recipe. I too skipped the radiccio and couldn’t find any cranberries in the house. So I subbed diced dates for the c-berries, toasted walnuts for the pecans and added onion and goat cheese. I used a mandoline to slice the fennel and onion. For the dressing I added a crushed garlic clove and 2 tsp. of Dijon mustard. I used white wine vinegar instead of the red and balsamic. I took this to work potluck and the only things that were gone were my salad and the pecan pie. I warned people that the watercress tended to strike some as bitter. One person asked what the”white stuff” was and when I told her it was fennel she was surprised since she said she hated fennel. I will use this as a jumping off recipe in the future.
This salad really grew on me. It was a 4 with the first few bites, but by the time I finished, I wanted more. I halved the recipe, and even that made a ton–but the leftovers are just as good. If you have a mandoline, I’d suggest using that to cut the fennel nice and thin so it’ll blend better with the salad, or you could use a food processor with the slicer blade. The only change I’d suggest is to add more cranberries and pecans, because they add a lot to the flavor but get somewhat lost with the amount of veggies.
This was so easy and delicious. Made a weeknight meal feel special. Didn’t have radichio on hand so left it out and it was still great.
Very delicious salad. Will definitely make this again.
Very good.
what a great combination of flavors! This salad is unique and delicious. Thanks!
This is a very delicious salad if you can find some nice fresh fennel and watercress. Try Whole Foods.