But what does it taste like? Fennel pollen is complex, and that’s what makes it so great. At first taste, it’s reminiscent of the fennel seed: anisey and earthy. But then it transforms into a citrusy, sweet finish.
The trick to fennel pollen is not to overuse it. A little really does go a long way, and even a gingerly pinch may be too much. So go slow, add with care, and use mostly towards the very end of cooking so as to preserve its flavor. Depending on where you get your fennel pollen, it may be more gritty than powdery. A quick whizz in the spice grinder will decrease its shelf life but vastly improve its texture.
Grains of all kinds take well to fennel pollen. Think rustic plates of quinoa and tabbouleh, grains with gusto to stand up to fennel pollens intensity. But milder starches work well too. Add to slices of crusty peasant bread lavished with butter, or toss into this weeks recipe: a minimalist spaghetti dressed with olive oil, orange zest, and mint. Also pay attention to the sweet side of the starchy spectrum. Specifically: squat buttery cookies and tall loaf cakes, rich with olive oil.
Fennel pollen can be harvested wherever fennel grows, so its popular with foragers (The Atlantics got you covered on that). But pay attention to pesticide use in that area to ensure you arent eating toxin-spiked pollen. You can also buy fennel pollen at farmers markets, specialty spice shops, and online from merchants like Pollen Ranch, Zingermans, and The Spice House.
I hate to say you can use the spice on everything, so I wont, but it is remarkably versatile. It can tread wherever fennel and anise do when you want that flavor more pronounced and nuanced. Some of my favorite uses: pork and chicken, roasted, sautéed, and (especially) made into sausage. Use fennel pollen to season meat with a dry rub of salt, or sprinkle on just before serving. Light summery soups, of the kinds filled with tomatoes, eggplant, and the like, gain headiness from a light sprinkle at the table. In colder times, when my oven churns out roasted vegetables with Fordian efficiency, fennel pollen is close at hand.
Take, for instance, fennel pollen. Its a trendy spice, bandied about in cheffy circles and locavore/forager networks. In an article for Saveur, the food writer Peggy Knickerbocker waxes poetic, “if angels sprinkled a spice from their wings, this would be it.” This is only slight hyperbole. Fennel pollen is an incredibly powerful spice, with notes of licorice, citrus, and handmade marshmallows. It tastes like pure summer joy.
Zingerman’s Art for Sale
Fennel pollen is that special, though luckily there’s no need to pal around with pollinators to try it, you can buy it by the jar! It’s one of my favorites to reach for in my spice drawer, so I’m spreading the word about what makes it so exceptional.
Dubbed “culinary fairy dust” by our friends at Zingerman’s Mail Order, fennel pollen is exactly what it sounds like, pollen from the flowers of a fennel plant. Often grown for its bulb, fennel is somewhat unique in that you can consume the entire plant—the bulb, the stalk, the fronds, the seeds, and the pollen.
If you were growing fennel in your garden in hopes of procuring homegrown pollen, instead of harvesting the bulb, you’d let the plant keep growing until it flowers, pick the umbels (the flower clusters), dry them, and collect the pollen. Speaking from personal experience, that is indeed as labor-intensive as it sounds, which explains the relatively high price of this special spice. (Fennel pollen’s BFF in the Most Arduous Spices to Obtain Club might be saffron. The vivid reddish-orange stigma from the saffron crocus has to be harvested by hand—and there are only three stigmata in each flower!)
Given that fennel seeds (which are derived from cultivated fennel) cost [a quarter the price of fennel pollen], we wondered if the wild pollen could be worth the splurge. When we compared the two… we understood the hype: The delicate crunch of these golden granules and their remarkably complex flavor featuring hints of licorice and citrus and a honeyed, marshmallow-like sweetness overshadowed the fibrous texture and one-note licorice taste of the seeds. —Cook’s Illustrated
It is also perhaps part of the reason why, up until a couple of decades ago, wild fennel pollen was relatively unknown here in the States, unlike in Italy, where wild fennel is rampant. We have Dario Cecchini, an eight-generation Italian butcher in Tuscany, to thank for helping to popularize fennel pollen (head to Mail Order’s blog, The Feed, for the full story.), making it easier for more of us to enjoy it.
Fennel pollen can add that mysterious and sweet herbaceous flavor that transports you to a small town in Tuscany, just with a flick of your fingers. —Ji Hye Kim, Chef and Managing Partner of Miss Kim
Fennel is often confused with anise, and while they are entirely different plants, it is the closest flavor comparison for what fennel and fennel pollen taste like. Fennel pollen does have a slightly sweet, anise-like flavor (don’t be deterred, licorice haters, it’s milder than you might expect) and it’s very fragrant. Val Neff-Rasmussen, Product Buyer for Mail Order says, “It tastes like fennel seed, but lighter, more ethereal.”
We Tried Fennel Pollen | A Spice That Is New To Our Collection | What Is Fennel Pollen?
FAQ
What’s the difference between ground fennel and fennel pollen?
Is fennel pollen good for you?
What does fennel taste like?
Does fennel pollen cause allergies?
What does fennel pollen taste like?
Referred to as both “the spice of angels” and “culinary fairy dust,” it seems everyone who’s tried fennel pollen falls for its nuanced flavor. Like fennel seed, it has an anise-like licorice flavor with notes of citrus and honey that enhances sweet and savory dishes alike. Both fennel pollen and fennel seed come from the fennel plant.
Should one chew fennel seeds?
It is perfectly safe and even healthy to swallow fennel’s seeds after chewing. Chewing fennel seeds is helps to aid digestion and prevent gas.
What does fennel seed taste like?
Like fennel seed, it has an anise-like licorice flavor with notes of citrus and honey that enhances sweet and savory dishes alike. Both fennel pollen and fennel seed come from the fennel plant. The former is exactly what it sounds like, the seeds of the fennel plant, while fennel pollen is the pollen harvested from the tiny flowers of the plant.
Is Fennel Pollen a good Spice?
Remember that a little goes a long way when using fennel pollen — this potent spice packs a punch! Here’s the catch: Fennel pollen is one of the world’s most expensive spices due to the fact that it is mostly foraged from wild fennel, which yields very little pollen per plant.