Candida Diet, Vegan Grain-Free, Sugar-free , Paleo Winter Greens with Fennel & Grapefruit Recipe (2024)

[Winter Greens with Fennel, Grapefruit and Beet is vegan, sugar-free, gluten-free, grain-free, dairy-free, egg free, soy-free, nut-free, yeast-free, and low glycemic. Suitable for Stage 2 and beyond on an anti-candida diet.]

There are just some things that get better with age. No, I don’t mean as they age (like a fine wine, or George Clooney); I mean things that are perceived as better once you age.

Take a pair of comfortable shoes, for example. I can well remember back in my 30s, buying the cutest-ever pair of pink patent leather (yes, you read that right: pink) T-strap pumps (sort of like these, except better looking). I got them to complement a pair of pink and mint green checked capri pants for an evening out with one of my male friends from university (on whom I had a major crush, unbeknownst to him–let’s just call him “MC”). In my 30-something world, it seemed imperative to wear something fetching, comfort be damned.

I donned the shoes, departed the university residence where I lived, and began my usual jaunt across Bloor Street from Yonge to Spadina to meet him. On a normal day, that walk would have taken about 12 minutes; that day, it took more than 20, and by the tail end, my feet were in agony: I shuffled painfully, enduring a sense of feet bound in Chinese slippers as my toes cramped and throbbed. I could practically feel the bunions developing on my big toes with each excruciating step.

Yet for some reason, I persisted and wore those shoes for the remainder of the evening, right up until the point when MC dumped me (crush entirely unrequited) to catch the subway at 1:30 AM. Needless to say, I never wore those shoes again.

These days? I opt for low heels (preferably rubber soles, thank you very much) and don’t even scoff at (gasp) Naturalizers if need be. In my (50-something) world, comfort always trumps vanity.

Then there’s music. I cringed at classical in my teens and into my twenties (in fact, enough to keep me away from certain locations), but now I live with someone who listens to classical every single night. When I was younger, I loathed having to witness romantic displays between my mom and dad when they celebrated birthdays or anniversaries. Nowadays, I crave just that from the HH.

Or, take food. When I was a kid, I detested all of the following: cheesecake (seriously), eggnog, beets, nuts (all kinds), coconut. All it took were a few decades (plus a plethora of dietary restrictions courtesy of candida) and–boom!–these days, I love all of those foods.

Another later-in-life culinary crush of mine is fennel. For years I avoided it, not quite appreciating the subtle licorice essence and crispy crunch of the sliced bulb. But it was just my palate that needed a few more years to mature. After trying it a few times since I started this blog, I’ve come to love it, too. In fact, I now think there’s nothing quite like thinly sliced fennel in a fresh salad, or even caramelized fennel in a veggie loaf. Today’s recipe contains a few other foods I’ve come to enjoy in recent years, too, with radicchio and beets complementing the fennel. It’s a super-easy and quick recipe, and one that looks beautiful, too; perfect for a post-holiday meal.

Even if you think you don’t like fennel, give this one a try. Or, you could just wait few years and see if your taste buds have matured by then. (Just kidding. I know your taste buds are perfectly mature already. And besides, the material on this blog is nothing if not 100% mature all the time–right?). 😉