Garden Harvest: Recipes to Use Up Radishes

"Let's plant radishes," I said. "I love radishes!" I said. I do love radishes, but when suddenly you have 30 radishes all ready at once and more on the way, just dipping them in hummus ain't gonna cut it.

I think radishes are an underrated veggie though, most of the time they're either on a sad crudite plate or thrown on a salad like an afterthought, but there actually incredibly delicious ways to cook or prepare radishes! A few of my favorite options are pickling, sautéing, and roasting.

1. Quick pickled radishes: Thinly slice radishes then stuff into a pint sized mason jar. If you don't have a jar, a bowl will do, a jar just makes it easier to store leftovers in the fridge. Combine 1/4 cup vinegar, 1/4 water, and about a teaspoon each salt and sugar. in a small saucepan I enjoy rice vinegar for the slight sweetness, but you could use red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, or just plain white. Bring ingredients just to a boil, then pour into jar over radishes. Let sit at least an hour, but overnight is best. Then use as your heart desires to top tacos, lettuce wraps, rice or noodle dishes, or really anything that needs a little extra zing. I actually like to do a combo jar of half red onion, half radish: delicious and beautiful!

2. Sautéed with lemon and brown butter: I especially love this recipe because it uses up a ton of radishes AND the greens all in one!

3. Roasted spring vegetables: I make a few adjustments typically, I don't keep horseradish on hand because it's not something I typically need, and I'm not going to buy something for one recipe. So I thought garlic would be perfectly tasty! I also use a lot less olive oil when roasting the veggies, otherwise when you add butter at the end they just end up so greasy (I use less butter as well). Don't skimp on the sherry vinegar; between the sweetness of the vegetables and the butter, you need something to cut the richness. Use red wine or champagne vinegar if you don't have sherry vinegar. Feel free to swap veggies as well, other root veggies would be delicious, and I didn't have a sweet onion on hand so I used red (and only one instead of three)- it was just fine.

Ingredients

1 onion (sweet, red, yellow)

3-5 carrots

2-4 turnips

8-12 radishes

1.5 tablespoons olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees

2. Halve radishes (or quarter if large)

3. Scrub or peel carrots and turnips, cut into 1 inch chunks (leave behind core of turnips)

4. Cut onion into eight wedges

5. Spread vegetables on baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper

6. Roast for 30-45 minutes until lightly browned

Ingredients

1.5 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tablespoon of fresh thyme (about 3 sprigs)

2 teaspoons sherry vinegar

1/4 teaspoon salt

In a small saucepan melt butter over medium heat. Add garlic, thyme, vinegar and salt, stir to combine. Pour over vegetables.

I usually serve it with quinoa with some fresh herbs (basil, parsley) and maybe some raw snap peas for something fresh and crisp, or some spinach.
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