I, too, loathe the long stories that precede every recipe on the internet, so I’ll keep my written bits brief. I’ve made this blog post to appreciate a gem of a plant, the radish. They’re an adorable vegetable and as I’m writing this just coming out of the winter season, one of the few things that grow in the hoophouses during the colder months. Radishes deserve some spotlight.
Pickled Radishes
This is the first level of radishes. If you’re already a radish fan and you opened this blog, you likely expected this recipe. Pickled radishes are a great sandwich or taco addition, and they taste great on their own. Go ahead. Eat the whole jar over the course of several trips to the fridge in one day. You’ve earned it.
Ingredients
2 Bunches | Radishes |
1/2 Cup | Red Wine Vinegar |
1/2 Cup | White Vinegar |
1/2 Cup | Sugar |
1/4 Cup | Kosher Salt |
1 Tbsp. | Black Pepper, whole corns preferred |
Directions
Slice up your radishes. A thin radish slice will soak in the pickle juice more easily.
Dissolve sugar and salt in vinegar mixture. This step may go quicker in a saucepan over low heat.
Place radishes, pepper, and bay leaves in a jar and pour the vinegar mixture in afterward. I like to place the bay leaves against the sidewall of the jar so they look like a plant growing out of the ground. This makes no difference to the flavor; it’s just pretty.
Leave the jar in the fridge overnight and eat the next day.
Radish Slaw
This is for my fellow coleslaw haters. Who decided that coleslaw would be the one salad-adjacent dish allowed to haunt our barbecue gatherings? Coleslaw is a conspiratorial plot to make people dislike vegetables. Radish slaw is how we fight back against that plot. Pulled pork sandwiches will never be the same.
Ingredients
3 Cup | Shredded Lettuce |
1 Bunch | Radishes |
1 | Green Apple |
1 Tbsp | Fresh Cilantro |
2 Tbsp | Dijon Mustard |
1/2 Tbsp | Honey |
1/2 Tbsp | Lime Juice |
1/2 Tsp | Salt |
1 Tsp | Black Sesame Seeds |
Directions
If you have a whole head of lettuce, cut it up into very thin strips and make sure these strips are not too long. With a head of iceberg lettuce, you can accomplish this by first cutting the whole head in half so that you have a flat side to place down on the cutting board and then making ¼ inch cuts all along the half-head of lettuce. Most other lettuce varieties make this somewhat trickier, but not impossible. In some stores, you can simply buy lettuce already shredded.
Grate green apple until just the core is left and use a cheese cloth to squeeze some excess moisture out of the grated apple. You can also grate the radishes, but due to their size I don’t like grating them. I prefer to manually cut the radishes into 1/8 inch julienne cuts.
Chop up cilantro.
Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and then serve. This is likely not a dish you want to let sit for too long. The lettuce will start to get suspicious.
Rainbow Breakfast Potatoes
This dish features ‘rainbow’ in the title because it uses sweet potatoes (not regular potatoes), radishes, asparagus, and shallots. That’s one orange, one red, one green, and one purple vegetable. I serve this with an over-easy egg on top, which adds yellow. If you’ve noticed there’s no blue, I guess you could drink some water.
Ingredients
3 | Sweet Potatoes |
1 Bunch | Radishes |
3 | Asparagus Stalks |
1 | Shallot |
2 Tbsp | Olive Oil |
2 Tsp | Fresh Thyme |
To taste | Salt |
To taste | Black Pepper |
1 per Person | Over-Easy Egg (optional) |
Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
Peel sweet potatoes and then cut them into ½ inch dice.
Put diced sweet potatoes in a baking dish with 1 Tbsp of the olive oil plus the salt and pepper. Bake for 25 min.
While your sweet potatoes are in the oven alone, prep your other vegetables. Quarter your radishes. Break off the pale, starchy bottom ends of your asparagus and cut the rich green part into ½ inch to 1 inch pieces. Thinly slice your shallot. Separate thyme leaves from stems.
Once the sweet potatoes have baked for 25 minutes with just olive oil, salt, and pepper, take them out and add your radishes, asparagus, shallots, and thyme into the baking dish. Add the other tablespoon of olive oil and give everything a good mix.
Place the baking dish back into the oven for another 20 minutes.
Serve with your over-easy egg on top. Or use a soft-boiled egg. Or use a poached egg. Do whatever you want. I just think eggs go very well with this dish.
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