Who doesn’t love a crazy simple, fast side salad dish that holds up really well in the fridge for an extended period of time? Meal prep goals.

All you need is a bowl and your hands (and just a few ingredients).

This is also a great recipe to easily convert to a ferment if you plan ahead. I love having fun things like this in my fridge for quick easy flavorful additions to my meals. Especially the cold raw salads on hot summer days.

I’ve been loving picking wild and cultivated fennel from my backyard to throw in salads, juices, etc. So fresh. And great for my belly (i.e. digestion). The caraway is a great addition well known for it’s digestive support, but beneficial for so much more.

Caraway seeds are one of the oldest used seeds (actually the fruit of the plant - related to carrot!) in cooking and very well known for their powerful medicinal qualities, primarily for digestive support. They were used in Ancient Greek medicine, Ancient Egypt, are a key ingredient in harissa originating in North Africa, a distinctive flavor in kraut, rye bread, aquavit, and so much more. Shakespeare even referenced using them in Henry IV, part 2! You know I love myself ANY Will Shakes reference (English major nerd alert). Lore has it that they were also used for romance, aiding in preventing fickleness, used in love potions, and thought to keep lovers interested in one another...

Caraway is also shown to "help with weight management when taken internally. In clinical studies, Caraway extract exhibited properties helpful to reducing appetite and managing weight when combined with exercise".

Caraway Fennel Quick Slaw

Yields 1 quart (4 cups)

INGREDIENTS

1/2 medium-large cabbage (green, Napa, or red all would work great)

1 small red onion, thinly sliced

1/2 lemon, juiced

small handful fresh fennel (roughly 1 tbsp when chopped)

1-2 drops doTERRA caraway essential oil*

1 tsp Himalayan salt

*If you don’t have caraway essential oil or prefer not to use oils internally, simply add loose caraway seed instead. 1/2 - 1 tsp dried, or to taste.

DIRECTIONS

Add cabbage and salt to a medium mixing bowl and massage until cabbage starts to soften and releases liquid

Add red onions, fennel, caraway, and lemon juice and continue massaging

Enjoy as a side, in a sandwich or wrap, a topping on a bowl or whatever your heart desires!

Store in a sealed container in the fridge for at least 1 week

NOTE: you could also press this into a glass quart sized mason jar and ferment just as you would kraut for some added probiotic fermented goodness. The fermented version will last a lot longer as well as a form of preservation and be extremely beneficial for overall health + wellbeing supporting healthy gut flora. Wins all around.

*Always start with a less is more mentality when adding essential oils as they are WAY more potent! 1 drop can be too much sometimes - you can dip a toothpick in and give a swirl in your recipe. You can always add more, but you can’t take it out.

PLEASE DO NOT consume just any old essential oil, they are not all created equal. It is an unregulated industry and many companies use fillers and very questionable hazardous to ingest ingredients. I have been using doTERRA for 5 years now and the only reason I do is because they have 3rd party lab test results of every single batch of oil that you can look up the spec report for online (each bottle has a code that links it to it’s spec report). To learn more about essential oils + safety click here.