Did you know that radishes and citrus go really well together!? When you adhere to the “opposites attract” theory as I do, it makes sense. Peppery, crunchy, bitter radish + sweet, sour, juicy citrus = very refreshing salad.
We will soon be into spring radish season (usually in May, but I fear they will be late this year as spring has only just arrived yesterday). Not to worry, even the plain Jane red ones you can get all year long in the supermarket are good. They are an under appreciated vegetable, often appearing as limp disks (read that carefully), relegated to the recesses of an all you can eat salad bar. But they’re actually a thing of beauty- and so packed with piquant flavor!
You can now easily find elegant, tapered french breakfast radishes (which as much as I love them, I have never eaten them for breakfast), gorgeous watermelon radishes, black radishes, daikon radishes, Easter egg radishes – a whole rainbow of colorful radishes, and of course the humble red globe radish, which I’ve loved since I was a kid.
And radishes are so versatile! You can eat them raw in all kinds of ways, roasted, sautéed or pickled (see below for a bonus Quick Pickled Radish recipe). I was tempted to call this super simple salad “The Bloody Radish” for obvious reasons. It’s a very refreshing, palate cleansing salad, and a great way to elevate that bag of radishes sitting in the back of your produce drawer.
- 8-10 radishes
- 2 blood oranges
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 3 tablespoons vinegar (white wine, white Balsamic or rice vinegar are good)
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 4 basil leaves, chopped
- Wash and trim the radishes. Slice them as thinly as you can into a bowl. Segment the blood oranges by slicing a bit off the top and bottom, then resting the orange on it’s cut end, slice the peel off from top to bottom. Cut each segment out and drop them into the bowl of radishes. Squeeze the remaining orange pulp and trimmings to extract any additional juice and set that juice aside to add to the vinaigrette.
- Mix up the vinaigrette. Whisk together the mustard, vinegar, oil, salt and pepper and any reserved blood orange juice. Arrange the radishes and orange segments on a plate and drizzle with the vinaigrette. Sprinkle basil on top.
And check out below for a quick, easy and delicious bonus recipe for Quick Pickled Radishes. Good in and on all kinds of things; chicken salad, stuffed eggs, sandwiches, burgers… etc. You get the idea!
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup water
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 bunch radishes, sliced thin
- 1 shallot, sliced thin
- 1 clove garlic, sliced thin
- Flavorings: Peppercorns, mustard seeds, whole allspice
- In a pan, bring vinegar, water and sugar to a boil. Add the radishes, shallots, garlic and pinch of each of the flavorings, and stir. Simmer for a minute then turn off the heat and allow the radishes to cool in the liquid. Pour into a sanitized mason jar and store in the fridge. They will last about 2 weeks in the fridge.
