Trying New Food Flavors

I like trying new foods and flavors, so when browsing my local farmer's market I always look for things my family and I have not tried.  I picked up a fennel bulb, relatively inexpensive, and used it in a salad . If you have never tried it, it has a very mild sweet licorice flavor, a flavor that is in the background, not one that strong.  It pairs nicely with citrus fruits like oranges or grapefruit.  In my salad I used spinach, oranges, the fennel, red onion and cracked black pepper.  The dressing consisted of orange juice, olive oil, cracked black pepper, salt  and sugar.   Along with the salad, I roasted shrimp in the oven with olive oil, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper and seafood seasoning.  It takes less than 10 minutes in the oven. Served with the shrimp, veggie bird nests with tempura soy sauce.  The bird nests are made from kale, carrots, onions and mixed in a tempura batter. They can be fried or baked in the oven.   Easy light meal in less than 30 minutes, and all tasted so good!  Fennel can also be roasted in the oven with olive oil and salt and pepper.