I had some fennel in the fridge and some cold basmati rice, so I thought what the heck, how about fennel fried rice? I sliced up about a third of a big fennel bulb along with half a small red onion and cooked it up together with a little vegetable oil in a cast iron pan until the fennel began to brown and the onions started to really carmelize. I added a splash of water, some dark soy and a healthy squirt of sriracha sauce and let it cook down to tenderize the fennel some.

Meanwhile, I chopped up quite a bit of ginger very fine and tossed it into a bit of hot oil in a wok. I added the rice and fried it up for a couple minutes, then added the fennel and onion mix from the other pan, along with whatever bit of my sauce that hadn’t cooked off. I mixed it all together in the wok for another minute and served it up.

The wonderful licorice flavour of the fennel coupled with the ginger and a bit of heat from the sriracha was a surprisingly tasty combination. Some wild mushrooms would enhance this dish even more, but it’s a “whatever’s in the fridge” kind of quick and tasty dinner, and the focus on the fennel and onion worked great.