Did you know that when Prometheus stole fire from Zeus to give it to humanity, he hid it in a hollow fennel stalk to carry it down from Mount Olympus? 

The ancient Greeks had a lot of respect for this plant (a favourite of the god of wine, Dionysos) - and so should we. 

But how many of us walk past it at the supermarket because we have noooo idea what to do with it?

Fennel can be a super duper side dish if you are in the business of, controlling diabetes, balancing your blood sugar or just wanting to stay healthy and eat your fibre. It has a ton of it, as well as a good amount of Vit. C and a ton of potassium (needed to balance out the sodium in your body and keep your blood pressure in check).

Here is a simple way to make it taste good:

• Cut it up into slices, removing the core.
• Put it in a pot and add some caraway seeds and/or black cumin seeds and a little water,
• Let it cook down on low heat (keeping an eye on it to make sure it does not stick to the bottom),
• Once it is soft, add some olive oil, salt and apple cider vinegar.
• Let it simmer for a few more minutes on low heat and 

✴ The high fibre content as well as the apple cider vinegar in this recipe will both play a role in reducing the blood sugar spike after the meal and helping with your insulin sensitivity.

✴ Cooking at low heat, so that the fennel essentially cooks in its own juice, will help preserve the nutrients and avoids the formation of AGEs which drive oxidative stress and inflammation in the body - (if you don't know what I am talking about take a look at the blog post on milk).

Enjoy without moderation ! 

We actually tried to grow some this year, and even though most of our garden was a big failure (3 months of non-stop rain and an army of slugs did not help!) fennel was one of the few "survivors" that made it to our kitchen table :)