This is such a delightful side dish or add some rocket and an egg and call it lunch. It’s a great way to use the abundant lemons that are falling off trees at the moment and is comforting and fresh all at the same time.

I love the flavour of roasted lemon and potatoes together. The lemon caramelises and becomes sweet and sticky while retaining it’s bright acidic freshness. The bitterness of the pith is all but absent and it’s just this sort of lingering bitterness that’s pleasant rather than something that cause you to involuntarily contort your face. Adding baby rocket plays with that bitterness in a way that just makes you salivate.

The roasted fennel is soft and sweet and it’s anniseed flavour is mellowed by the lemon, salt and time in the oven. I love roasted fennel, it’s so different from it’s raw counterpart.

I almost never roast potatoes without par boiling them but I wasn’t go for a shatteringly crispy texture here so there didn’t seem to be any point in par boiling as I usually do it to get some texture going on. This dish is simpler without the extra step and I think we can all apreciate that.

Serve it as a side dish with fish or chicken or as I suggested in the opening sentence, as a lunch rounded out with some salad greens and an egg.

Serves 4 as a side, 2 as a salad base

Ingredients

400g potatoes, chopped into bite sized chunks with the skin on (I used kestrel) (3 -4cm see image)

3 cloves garlic

1 baby fennel, outer leaves discarded sliced into 3mm thick slices, reserve the fronds

2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

1 lemon sliced into 2mm thick slices

1 tsp fennel seeds

1 tsp mustard seeds

2 tsps roughly chopped capers

Directions

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees celsius. Line a tray with baking paper.

Toss the potatoes with 1/2 the olive oil, the fennel seeds and the mustard seeds. Season generously with salt. Spread in a single layer on the tray and roast for 30 minutes. Add the garlic after 20 minutes has passed.

Meanwhile, toss the lemon and fennel with the remaining olive oil and a pinch of salt. After 30 minutes of roasting add these to the potatoes, tossing to combine. Roast for a further 15 minutes or until fennel and lemon have softened and are beginning to get golden in places.

Remove and place on a serving plate. Sprinkle with reserved fronds and capers. Season with pepper and serve with salt on the side.

HH. x