I feel like it is my duty to introduce you to a new kind of pickled garden vegetable. Seriously. This will change your life. Vamp up your salads, hack your snacks, take pride in your sides. All you need to add is…a pickled radish.
We had a brilliant first crop of radishes this year and I was keen to do something interesting with them. After all, there is only so much raw radish you can eat in a salad. I have a friend who is a chef and they make a lot of Japanese inspired dishes. The dishes are often accompanied by unusual vegetables and colourful pickles. I felt inspired and I was keen to try my hand at making some.
My Mum took a little convincing but we managed to find a relatively easy pickling recipe online and she agreed to give them a try. We decided to try making a small batch to see how they turned out before committing to pickling them all and later realising that we didn’t like them.
We re-purposed some old jam jars (washed and sterilised). We chose to use smaller sized jars so that we could donate one to the village fete’s ‘Jam and Pickles’ stall. Plus, it would make it easier to eat them before they went off.
The recipe that we chose to use was this one from Simply Delicious. We left the chilli flakes out because I don’t like really spicy food, but that’s just personal preference.
Ingredients
- Fresh radishes
- White vinegar/apple cider vinegar
- Spices: Mustard seeds, black peppercorns/cracked black pepper, bay leaf, red pepper flakes/chilli flakes, salt
- Sugar
Method
- Prepare the radishes: Wash radishes well and remove leaves and stems. Slice the radishes thinly with a sharp knife or a mandoline slicer and place in a sterilized jar.
- Make the pickling liquid: Heat vinegar, spices, sugar and salt in a small saucepan until the sugar dissolves then pour the brine over the sliced radishes.
- Seal and store: Seal the jar and allow to cool. Allow the radishes to pickle for at least 2-3 days but up to 4 months in the fridge.
This recipe could not be easier. Pickled radishes will last for approximately 4 months, unopened, in the fridge. Once opened, use within 1-2 weeks and keep refrigerated.
Three weeks later it was time for the moment of truth. Mum and I decided to add them to a dish of home-grown salad leaves for our lunch. And they were delicious!
If youre looking for something different to do with your radishes and want to try something new I can highly recommend pickling them. It is also a great way of preserving your produce and would make a nice gift.
Green-Fingered Mum 