Whole Foods had a big sale on wild sole last week, which inspired me to think of an easy way to eat a lot of the delicious fish. I happened to have a lot of fennel in the fridge, and so I experimented with cooking the sole and fennel together — and discovered our new favorite way to cook sole! The fennel and lemon pair perfectly with the fish. Baking the fennel brings out a lot of the vegetable’s flavor and sweetness, and the lemon and garlic add a nice zesty quality to the dish. The sole is so moist and flavorful! This dish should typically serve about 4 people, especially when accompanied with another side vegetable, but, truth be told, it was so light and delicious we ate the whole thing when I made it last night! This recipe will be a nice addition to my work-week dinner roster, as it is so simple to make and healthful, too!
BAKED SOLE WITH FENNEL+LEMON
- 2 lbs. wild sole
- 6 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
- 1 lemon, thinly sliced
- 1 1/2 large fennel, cored and thinly sliced (also, keep some of the green fennel tops and chop finely)
Preheat the oven to 400 F.
Wash and pat dry the sole filets. In a baking pan, lay out the sole. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Lay out the garlic and lemon slices over the sole. In a bowl, toss the fennel in a drizzle of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Cover the sole with the fennel. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Finally, broil for about 7 minutes to lightly brown the fennel. Serve and Enjoy!
Lay out the sole in a pan, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper.
Lay out the garlic and lemon slices.
Cover the sole with fennel slices, which have been tossed in olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
Out of the oven!
So flavorful and delicious!
eat. live. paleo. 
Once more a delightful recipe–a pleasurel to read. I’ve just been working on a couple of songs by Shakespeare, and l felt the same freshness in your writing, the same achieved simplicity which depends on so much sophistication. But unless the language has changed (which is not impossible, it happens all the time)) I’d suggest not using ”healthy” for “healthful.”
Thanks, Michael! I have corrected it 🙂
I’ll be making this tonight! Thanks for the great idea
this dish was outstanding! i just had to tell you! haha i used butter instead of oil and made it with almost a pound of sole. i figured, hey, i will have enough for breakfast. yeah right! i ate the whole pan myself! it was so light though that i don’t care. i can’t wait to get some more sole to make it again.
Awesome! Glad you enjoyed it! It is so light, isn’t it? We never have leftovers of it either! 🙂
That’s so funny – I was at Whole Foods yesterday and they were having a sale on sole. And I have some extra fennel in the fridge. So I googled the ingredients and voila! Your recipe. I prepped the dish to bake later tonight. Also added some olives that were left over. Bet it’ll be great!
Wonderful!