Last year was the year of raw kale. This year I wanted to try cooking radishes. Having seen a cooked radish garnish on a menu recently, and since a bunch of beautiful radishes have literally popped up in the garden and no one seems particularly interested in eating them raw but me, I decided it was time.
Since discovering that radishes are the greatest thing to grow in spring, I’ve been trying different varieties. My favorite is still Cherry Belle, but I also bought a packet of Easter Egg Radishes this year, and I love them, too. There are pink, purple and white radishes and they have the same perfectly round shape as the Cherry Belles. (I also think the purple ones “bled” and gave the finished dish its good color. I’m not as fond of the French Breakfast radishes that seem like they’ll be elegant but are rather irregular growers.)
I looked for recipes and found a highly rated one on Epicurious.com that looked just strange enough and was raved about highly enough to make me try it. (I mean, radishes in chicken tacos and stir fries seemed somehow too obvious.) The recipe is below, with the oil and salt reduced per recommendations. I just put in a few turns of the salt grinder, but Steve said even then it seemed to salty. I’m wondering if one should just omit the salt altogether here.
I didn’t have watercress, which the recipe called for, but always hate discarding the radish greens (as recommended in the recipe) so I mixed a bunch of those greens with some young beet greens I harvested from the garden. I also managed to get enough spiky spinach and arugula to make a salad.
This is really a red-white-and-blue dish, if you want to sell it that way. Of course, it’s also primarily green. The blue salad is from an idea I got from the local coffeehouse, the Local Blend. It’s just greens topped with blueberries and blue cheese and a white wine vinaigrette (the Local Blend makes a dressing from blueberries as well, but I’ve found that’s not really worth the effort).
Steve got a brat instead of a salad with the side of sauteed radishes and greens. That also looked great and had a real cookout sensibility to it.
I highly recommend this dish and am just going to have to grow more radishes now so we can have it more often! Good thing they grow in less than three weeks!
Note on the recipe: the cooking times might need to be longer if the ingredients are “sturdier.” My veggies from the garden are a lot more tender than grocery store veggies and I find they always cook faster.
Sauteed Radishes and Greens
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
12-16 radishes, halved lengthwise, then sliced crosswise 1/4 inch thick
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup water
a few handfuls of flavorful greens, like radish greens, beet greens, spinach, mustard and arugula, coarse stems discarded, washed well, and chopped
Heat butter with oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until foam subsides, then sauté radishes with salt and pepper, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes. Add water and cook, covered, until crisp-tender, about 2 minutes, then cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until liquid is evaporated, 1 to 3 minutes. Add greens and sauté, stirring, until wilted, about 1 minute.