I never really liked radishes. So bitter and hot! Yes, even the French Breakfast radishes I planted this year. So why do I plant them at all? Well, they’re incredibly easy and incredibly fast (turnaround time can be as little as a few weeks). They also grow early enough in the season that you can have a whole radish harvest finished off by the time you want to plant something more desirable in the same spot. So I plant them. And at first I’m all excited, because they’re so cute!
But then I pull them up and eat one, and it’s a big ouchie in my mouth. Yet, still they seduce me. Dutifully, I pull up the lot, bring them home, and scrub them until they look quite scintillating:
Scintillating, but rather useless to me. Until now, that is. Because now I have discovered the secret of the radish. And of course, it was the French who knew the secret all along.
Open-face radish sandwiches with lots of butter and ground sea salt! My, but they’re good. I don’t know how it happens, but the radish slices lose their bitter-hot punch and become mild and delightful (but still with that great crunch). Is it the salt? The butter? The exposure to air on the surface of the slices? What chemical reactions are going on, I wonder, that transform this beast of a vegetable into a charming and elegant ingredient? Whatever it is, I love it. Those French, man, they know what’s what.
:::whispers:::
I don’t really like radishes either. Except w/ your above treatment. It’s just further proof that butter really does make anything better.
Great headline, Amelia!
This weather is awful. It’s too hot and the radishes are all bolting before they can make radishes. Give your radishes some shade if you can. If you like a milder radish, grow Hakurei turnips. Best radish you’ve ever eaten.
that is exactly how we used to eat them in Poland when I was a kid. they were the very first crop and we waited for them in anticipation…they are even better with a little bit of chives sprinkled over them or even better fresh dill…fresh bread, butter, radish, salt and herbs….YUM!!!!!! Another way is to slice them and put a couple of tablespoons of sour cream, salt, pepper and herbs in with them (mix well) and then put it on the bread! yum!!!…I am going right now to saw some (we can do it all year round in Sydney!)
My Mom was always a fan of radishes and olives- two things that I have never cared for.
I must have tried radishes as a child and did not like them- a prejudice that I carry to this day. Every spring I think of my mother’s fondness for radishes and mean to give them another “adult” go. I think I will try out your radish sandwiches. You make them sound so delicious!
It’s a pity that carrots got all the popular crunch. I love radishes as far as I can remember. I’ve never tried this (or the Polish) delivery for radishes. I have some Sparkler Radishes coming late in a few weeks and will love to try it! Thanks all.
hmmmm. I don’t hate them, I don’t love them, but anything that can grow full grown in two weeks that isn’t a weed might be worth tasting with butter.
I have never planted radish before and hardly eat it. It looks very fresh and delicious in you pictures here. Seem easy to do and great for my kitchen garden.
[…] from last fall. Add in some chive blossoms, goat cheese, and orange champagne vinegar, plus a radish ‘n’ butter sandwich on the side, and it’s a light meal for all […]
In your salad – delicious.
They are also perfect topping an open-face cheese sandwich: After you butter the bread ad a thick slice of your favourite cheese before you top up with slices of radish.
I actually enjoy radishes just as they are…plain! But in salads they’re especially good. I was really looking forward to the radishes I’ve been growing in a pot on my deck…until yesterday, when my pot had just a couple of seedlings left. There are just too many squirrels in my yard;-(
Great tip, thanks! A blog from MA talked about making radish top soup; it sounded crazy but I just tried it just the same and it was prettygood. Just google radish top soup for the recipe.
Try roasting radishes. You’ll be astonished.
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