This enticing salad, featuring fennel, avocado, and pistachios, can be enjoyed year round but is especially welcome in late winter and early spring when our palates begin to crave lighter, brighter flavors. The recipe is from Sabzi: Vibrant Vegetarian Recipes by Yasmin Khan.
This gorgeous cookbook by Yasmin Khan celebrates all things sabzi — the Persian word for fresh greens and herbs, ingredients that are at the heart of Iranian cuisine. I’ve already made several recipes and have bookmarked many others.
The vibrantly-flavored recipes are eminently approachable and are centered on obtainable ingredients. Many are weeknight-friendly. This book has already become a standard in my kitchen!
Yasmin has this to say about Fennel, Avocado, and Pistachio Salad: “This fragrant salad celebrates the delicate flavors of anise with its thin shavings of crunchy fennel and tangles of tarragon, which come together to make a highly aromatic side dish. Tarragon is one of the most underused herbs in Western cooking, but Iranians love it. I adore its peppery, aniseed flavor.”
Sabzi: Vibrant Vegetarian Recipes is available
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Recipe is excerpted from Sabzi: Vibrant Vegetarian Recipes. Copyright © 2025 by Yasmin Khan. Photos Copyright © 2025 by Jonathan Gregson. Used with permission of the publisher, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. Learn more about Sabzi following the recipe box.
Yasmin Khan is a food and travel writer, broadcaster, and human rights campaigner. She is the author of three cookbooks: Ripe Figs, Zaitoun, and The Saffron Tales. She lives in London.
Tips on prepping fennel from The Vegan Atlas
There’s a lot to love about fennel, a unique vegetable with an anise flavor and celery-like texture. It’s comprised of a pale green-tinged white bulb with green celery-like stalks sprouting from it. The stalks are topped with fernlike, dark green leaves that resemble dill. When thinly sliced, the bulb portion can be used raw or lightly cooked. It’s also good stir-fried or roasted. Some tips:
First: Wash with cold water. Cut off the feathery leaves, reserving them to use as garnish. Trim away the core, then remove and discard any discolored layers.
Prepping the bulb: Cut away the celery-like stalks from the bulb. Cut the bulb in half lengthwise, then place cut side down. Cut away any tough center core portion before cutting crosswise to make thin strips.
The celery-like stalks: These can be tough and aren’t suitable to eat raw. But you can peel them with a vegetable peeler, then slice crosswise as you would celery. You can also simple chop them coarsely and use in homemade vegetable broths. Another use: steam in a small amount of water until soft, then puree in a blender to add an offbeat flavor to soup bases.
The feathery leaves: Though they don’t have a similar flavor, you can use the leaves just as you would fresh dill. Toss into soups and salads at the last minute. Use as a garnish for grain and pasta dishes.
Learn lots more in this guide, How to Use Fennel, the Anise-Flavored Vegetable.
Explore more …
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Yasmin Khan’s Fennel, Avocado, and Pistachio Salad
This enticing salad, featuring fennel, avocado, and pistachios, can be enjoyed year round but is especially welcome late winter and early spring when our palates begin to crave lighter, brighter flavors. The recipe is from Sabzi: Vibrant Vegetarian Recipes by Yasmin Khan.
Ingredients
- 2 heads Little Gem lettuce (about 7 ounces/200 g; see note)
- 1 (8-ounce/230 g) fennel bulb, thinly sliced
- 1 large handful mint leaves, finely chopped
- 1 large handful parsley leaves, finely chopped
- 1 small handful tarragon leaves
- 3 tablespoons shelled pistachios
- 2 ripe avocados, peeled, pitted, and sliced
Dressing
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Combine the lettuce leaves, fennel, and herbs in a large bowl.
- Toast the pistachios in a pan over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board, roughly chop, and add to the salad.
- Make the dressing by whisking together the olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper (or to taste) in a small bowl.
- Pour over the salad leaves and then use your (clean!) hands to mix it all together, ensuring every leaf is covered with some dressing. Add the avocado and lightly toss again, until coated.
- Taste and adjust the seasoning—depending on what you are serving this with, you may want a touch more salt or vinegar. Serve at once.
Notes
Little Gem lettuce is basically a young romaine. A good substitute would be the smaller inner leaves of romaine, or a tender lettuce like butterhead, Boston, or Bibb.
More about Sabzi: Vibrant Vegetarian Recipes by Yasmin Khan
Sabzi, the Persian word for fresh greens and herbs, lies at the heart of Iranian cuisine. It’s chopped into frittatas or simmered by the pound to make thick, hearty stews or eaten simply by the handful with fresh feta cheese, walnuts, and bread. In Urdu, sabzi means vegetables and often describes cooked dishes like braised okra in a spicy masala or aloo matar gajar.
From cilantro-topped pho to mint speckled tabbouleh, many cuisines around the world embrace sabzi, even if they don’t call it by that name. So, when acclaimed author Yasmin Khan set out to write her fourth cookbook, it felt natural to create a joyous, ingredient-led compilation that honors her love of sabzi and celebrates the kaleidoscopic flavors of vegetable cookery, the type of cooking she instinctively turns to at home in North London.
SABZI: Vibrant Vegetarian Recipes (W. W. Norton; August 26, 2025) features 80 vegetarian (and mostly vegan) dishes and captures a global palate influenced by the many countries Khan has lived, worked, or traveled in, but many of the recipes are rooted in a more personal story too: the home she grew up in and the home she’s creating.
The flavors of her Irani-Pakistani heritage are woven throughout and, as she writes, took on greater significance with the arrival of her daughter. Wanting to share her lineage and pass on food memories but updated for her veg-centric lifestyle, Khan created plant-based renditions of classics, like a Persian Celery and Bean Stew (Khorescht-e Karafs) or an Eggplant and Lentil Tahchin.
She finds weeknight shortcuts for making fragrant Punjabi braises, the types her dad would often cook growing up, and reaches for spices—saffron, fenugreek, dried limes—to embolden steaming bowls. Chapters range from morning until night with Bountiful Breakfasts, Mezzes and Sides, Big Salads, Soups for Every Season, Main Meals, and Dreamy Desserts. Indeed, the recipes are hearty, packed with flavor, and utterly satisfying.
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