We are eating from the garden! We are eating from the garden!
I cannot tell you how pleased we are with the French Breakfast radishes. No, we are not eating them for breakfast. No, we do not have any desire to suddenly become French (although a pied a terre in Paris or a cottage in the South of France would be very nice, thank you).
But the French Breakfast radishes? This little piggy said “Oui, oui, oui!” all the way home.
They are the easiest thing ever to plant and grow, don’t mind being crowded, move fast (like less than four weeks to edibility) and are easy for a preschooler with no patience and limited fine motor skills to harvest.
Because we are pulling them out of the ground, and not out of a little plastic pouch, we also get the radish greens, so today’s blog is a double feature. You can use the whole thing (well, I do cut off the stringy rooty bit)!
However, because we pull them out of the ground, they are very, very dirty. In fact, I just found out that rather than harvest lettuce from the garden, my dad has still been buying clamshells of mixed greens from the store, “because I don’t feel like cleaning all that dirt….”
Seriously.
Let me just move on from that one and say, if you are willing to deal with the dirt (you may want to hose them down over the garden bed so you don’t lose all that good soil), the freshness of these radishes is amazing. And the sweetness that comes out in roasting is astonishing. The greens are great too, in the way that all leafy greens are great (to me). Saute with garlic and love them up. So here are your two recipes for the the same veg. Rock on!
(Full disclosure: my darling son – who planted, watered, thinned and harvested these with his own hammy little hands – tried a bite of the roasted ones and spit them out. Whatever. More for me.)
Roasted Radishes
20-30 radish bulbs, topped and tailed (radish greens can be reserved and used for salad or sautéed with oil and garlic), and sliced in half
1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbs salted butter (or 1 Tbs unsalted butter and a sprinkle of salt)
1 -2 tsp fresh lemon juice
Preheat oven to 450°F.
Place radishes on a rimmed baking dish (lined with foil if you prefer). Smother with remaining ingredients and roast for 15-20 minutes or until browning at the edges. Sprinkle with additional salt, if desired. Serve.
Sauteed Radish Greens
1 -2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
Three cloves garlic, minced
Radish greens from 20-30 young radishes, thoroughly rinsed and dried, stems removed, if desired
Salt to taste
Heat olive oil in sauté pan at medium high until liquid and fragrant. Add garlic, lower heat and cook for one minute or longer – until lightly golden. Add radish greens and stir to coat. Cook at medium heat until bright green and wilted. Serve on its own, or as an addition to a sandwich.
Hot, Cheap & Easy 
Wow – I’ve never had cooked radishes before, how exciting and very funny that Leandro spat them out!
I was talking to the farmer I buy from at the farmers’ market on Sunday and he was lamenting that people keep asking him for washed potatoes 😉
I’ll bet they do ask…Part of farm to table is learning to deal with the grittier side of life 🙂
I’ve actually hear them ask for washed potatoes – it’s unbelievable. Most people would lie down and die if the supermarkets closed unexpectedly!
Too right, mate
Perfect timing! I just received a bunch of radishes in my CSA box today (http://inherchucks.com/2012/05/31/whats-in-the-box-28/) and am looking around for the perfect recipe…this one looks delish! Excited to give this a try.
Ps: congrats on a successful harvest!
Love the timing!!!! Let me know how it goes! P.S. Had to find an organic spray for the leafy greens…something’s out there…and it’s hungry 😦
Such a bummer when critters get into our goodies…but can you blame them? Hope the organic spray works!
me too!