Category: Radish

Winter radishes start appearing in our last one or two regular season CSA shares. If you signed up for our Winter CSA you will see them more frequently.

Aren’t they pretty? The radishes we get in the spring are just as pretty and you can use both varieties in very similar ways. The main differences are the winter varieties are much less pungent than the spring radishes, more like our salad turnips, but so much prettier! Winter radishes store for a really, really long time, at least two months.

I keep mine in a plastic bag in my crisper drawer with a damp paper towel if they are whole. Once I cut into them I like to store them in the refrigerator in a glass jar with a lid and a damp paper towel on the bottom of the jar. The damp paper towel helps keep the color in the radish.

I slice them really thin and add (lots!) to salads, toast, tacos or sandwiches, or just snack on the them! They are so pretty and crunchy and fun! Try some pickled!

You can roast them like hakurei turnips, or braise them, but they will lose a bit of their color but they do add a nice texture and flavor to cooked dishes.

Winter radishes are a beautiful fun winter vegetable to enjoy. Have fun with yours!

Mo

I love pickled daikon. I put it on everything. Pickled daikon and carrots are usually associated with Bahn mi sandwiches, but why save this yummy pickle for just Bahn mi?

It can dress up any kind of sandwich, this is just a fried egg in a pita. Use it in rice or noodle dishes or any roast meat or vegetable dish. I like it on fish tacos or in tortilla wraps. Think of using it like you would sauerkraut or coleslaw. Like sauerkraut or coleslaw, it brings a fresh crunchy funky element to a meal.

Speaking of funky, it has to be said that pickled daikon’s are a little stinky. Not too bad like say, kimchi. They won’t stink up your refrigerator. When you open the jar step away for a minute and let the smell dissipate, it just takes a couple seconds.

OK, back to the recipe. This just takes a few minutes to make. The hardest part is cutting up the vegetables. You can cut the vegetables as small or big as you like. You can use a knife, I like to use my mandolin to make thin slabs then I slice the slabs into small julienne slices with a knife. You could use your food processor and shred them small.

To make about a quart of pickles you will need;

• 4 cups total of daikon and carrots. It doesn’t matter the proportions.
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup vinegar either rice or white
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 Tablespoon salt

Combine carrots, radish, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.

Using your hands, massage salt and sugar into vegetables until dissolved.

Add water and rice vinegar. Pack vegetables into a quart-sized mason jar with a tight lid. You can eat the pickles right away but they are better after a day or so. They will keep in the refrigerator for at least a month. They get a little limp after a week but they are still really good.

This is one of those things when you make it once you want to always have it in your refrigerator. You’ll find more and more uses for it.

Mo

Radish pickles make any dish a little more tasty and fun and add a really nice crunch to everyday food. They are super quick and easy to make and dress up anything. Try radish pickles on a simple bowl of rice, a taco or a sandwich or top a salad with it.

I had watermelon radishes today, but you could use a daikon or a black winter radish if that is what you have. Look at the tap root on that big radish! You’ll have to scroll waaaaayyy down to see the whole thing. Way to grow Team Red Wagon Farm!

To make this you’ll need;

• A winter radish
• 1/4 cup vinegar-any type will do. I used cider vinegar, rice vinegar is good or white wine vinegar is good too.
• 2 tablespoons of a sweetener-agave, sugar, honey. I used maple syrup
• Black sesame seeds are optional, but fun with watermelon radishes, they look like watermelon seeds :-).

Slice the radish very thin. You can use a knife or a mandolin or even a spiralizer if you have one and toss in the vinegar and sweeter…that’s it, you made a radish pickle.

This will keep in a jar in the refrigerator for a week to 10 days. I hope you try this. It makes me happy to have a jar and try it on different things.

Have a great week. See you at pickup.

Mo

Butter, salt and radish. Simple, classic, delicious.

This post is an ode to the humble radish.

I chop them up and throw them in just about any salad. I love adding them to my avocado toast in the morning. Lots of coffee shops serve this very dish.

I saw this idea for butter dipped radishes and made it for a Father’s Day pre-dinner snack.  Everyone really loved them and they took about 5 minutes to make and were really super impressive looking. I’ll make these again and again I am sure.

I will trim the greens better next time to make them prettier. Opps. Funny that didn’t bother me when we were eating them. But now that I see the picture-ekk.

Much like the butter dipped radishes for an appetizer, I like to set out an array of radishes, butter, salt and bread to snack on with drinks before dinner.

People can grab what they like, just butter and bread or bread with slices of radish, or they can put a little butter on a radish and salt it sans bread.

Yup. Simple, classic, delicious.

I get asked all the time what I do with watermelon radishes.

I have fun.