Fennel and Cabbage Salad with Dried Cranberries and Apples

One of my top 2 favorite salads of all time is the Chinese Chicken Salad served at Comfort's in Sausalito. The crispness and freshness of the ingredients mixed with a hearty roll is truly the best meal. I wanted to create something similar in terms of crisp and fresh but with different ingredieants. A good friend from out of town, John, came to the city last weekend for work and he came over for dinner on Friday evening. I went to the Union Square Green Market after work and got some inspiration for a meal. One of the vendors had huge bulbs of fennel so I picked up two fennel roots and went on my way. Another vendor had large beautiful rolls of whole wheat bread and since it was already 6pm, all the bread was half off, so I picked up a large roll to go with the salad. I enjoy the strong licorice taste to fennel seeds so I treated this salad in much the same way - complimenting it with some sweet ingredients to offset the licorice flavor. This recipe is based off of Alison's Lunch. This salad also tastes great the next day! Just remember to slice your fennel super thin!

Fennel and Cabbage Salad with Dired Cranberries and Apples
(Serves 4)

Ingredients:
1 large bulb fennel, roots trimmed and very thinly sliced
1/2 small head of green cabbage, very thinly sliced
1 apple, unpeeled, cored and cut into matchsticks
A generous 1/4 cup dried cranberries
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon ground pepper

Directions:
1. Combine the fennel, cabbage, apple and cranberries in a large salad bowl.
2. In a small glass, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, fennel sees and ground pepper. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss until incorporated. Refrigerate for 15 minutes and enjoy!