I’ve confessed before that despite growing them in my garden, I am not really a big fan of raw radishes. I find them passable when slathered with butter, and eat them in salads only when there’s a sweet element or two to balance their “bite” (like here).
Recently, I discovered that radishes are quite excellent when they’re cooked ever so briefly. I’ve been stir-frying them with greens, and can easily down a giant plateful. I also discovered the joy of pickled radishes. Good thing radishes are so easy to grow…I need to plant lots more to feed my new radish addiction.
Marisa linked to a pickled radish recipe from Eugenia Bone on her facebook page not long ago. I was intrigued and made a batch right away, tweaking the recipe just a bit. I didn’t have quite enough radishes so added some sliced carrots, plus I wanted to use some of the green garlic I have in my garden right now. The result was so delicious, I ate up the contents of the jar in one day.
For my next batch, I added a sliced jalapeno pepper. The jar is hanging out in my fridge right now and I can’t wait to dig in…I think the heat of the chile will be fabulous in what is otherwise a fairly sweet condiment.
These are terrific spooned over ricotta cheese on a piece of “serious” whole-grain (or your favorite gluten-free) toast. I also love them with fried eggs in a warm corn tortilla.
It’s also nice that you can plant radishes as a late summer crop for harvest in early fall, so you can enjoy foods from your garden all the way up to the holiday season.
Refrigerator Pickled Radishes
Ingredients
- *3/4 cup very clean and thinly sliced radishes mine were fresh from the garden, and fairly petite
- *1/4 cup plus a little more if needed to fill the jar, very clean and thinly sliced (disc-shape) carrots, peeled if not organic
- *1 clove of green garlic or regular garlic, peeled and sliced
- *1/2-1 jalapeno pepper or other hot chile pepper, fresh or dried, sliced- optional
- *1/2 cup brown rice vinegar
- *1/2 cup organic sugar
- *1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- 1. Place the vinegar, sugar and salt in a small pot and heat to boiling. Stir so the sugar dissolves. Add the radishes, carrot, and garlic, and optional chile pepper, then remove from heat.
- 2. Pack into a sterilized half pint jar (you may have extra liquid- Eugenia Bone recommends using it as salad dressing). Place on the countertop overnight, then refrigerate. These are delicious right away, but their flavor will develop over time. Eat within a week or two.