Thursday, June 27 Mediterranean Veggies on Israeli Couscous Rating: 4.5

We got fennel in the CSA box! I’ve had it in dishes at restaurants before, and of course fennel seeds in many, many things, but I’d never worked with one of the actual bulbs and its fronds before. The bulb we got was a little small and I wanted to do something extra special with it – I was just scared I would mess it up. So, after much searching, I ended up on the Vegetarian Times site and found this gem of a recipe. It seemed simple, but looked delicious. I used kalamata olives instead of black because we prefer them and also, that was what was in the fridge. I also left out the mushrooms - Seth hates them so I rarely buy them – and added zucchini (also from the CSA box). I had to buy the peppers and tomatoes, but had onions from the farm as well, so this dish was a great use of our CSA bounty. I was surprised at how east it really was. Once the veggies were prepped, it was really just a matter of sautéing them and voila! I have to admit, I did have a YouTube video tutorial on how to correctly cut the fennel bulb playing while I did it, so that was helpful. The seasoning mix on the veggies was amazing, and the combination of tomato, pepper, carrots and zucchini with the fennel was perfect. I am a little bit in love with Israeli couscous and one of our favorite ways to have it is with mixed vegetables, so yeah - we liked this a lot. I cook it in vegetable broth to give it a little extra flavor. It was the perfect pairing for this. I even sprinkled some of the fronds on top to make it look extra fancy-pants. I’m hoping for more fennel so I can make this again soon!