If you’re not going to make turnip cakes, maybe you’ll want to try this recipe adapted from “My New Roots: Inspired Plant-Based Recipes for Every Season” by Sarah Britton. You could roast sweet potato cubes, or apple cubes!, to add to this salad. Yum.
Kimchi is traditionally made with Napa cabbage, and is a great way to use daikon radishes. If you only have “regular” cabbage – just substitute it for the Napa in the recipe.
The Korean chili powder is pretty essential. You can find it at the Buford Highway Farmers Market, but also at grocers that specialize in Korean foods.
The recipe comes from “Tart and Sweet” by Kelly Geary and Jessie Knadler. Add some sliced mustard greens if you like, that’s also a traditional addition.
This soup recipe comes from Florence Fabricant and will use up quite a bit of radish. Serve it hot, or chill it and serve it cold.
In place of the green chili it calls for, you can also a Scotch bonnet pepper, but DON’T CUT IT UP. Just simmer the whole pepper in the soup when you add the shrimp, and then remove it before serving. You just want a bit of the heat, not the whole scorching thing.
This is a vegetarian version of a dish that’s traditionally made with beef. Another good use for daikons. Adapt it for the vegetables you have on hand. The recipe looks daunting, but it’s really just taking each vegetable and cooking it with seasonings until just done, then setting that one aside, and doing the next. This way you get perfectly cooked vegetables. It’s a dramatic presentation and fun to eat. The recipe calls for short-grain rice because that’s the kind that will stick together as its cooks.
In my CSA box was a little bundle of three medium size daikon radishes with greens. I think raw daikon radishes are an acquired taste. I love “regular” radishes, but the daikon has a bitterness to the heat that makes it not something I enjoy eating raw in a salad.
So to use my three pretty daikons today, I’ll be making these vegetables. Even if you don’t want to do the whole recipe, try the pickled vegetables part. It’s a fairly traditional take on Vietnamese pickled vegetables which are served on banh mi sandwiches and a great way to temper those daikons. You could do it with all daikon, but the carrots add color and the cucumber makes a nice change of texture. Try chicken, tofu or other shrimp instead of the salmon if you like.
This recipe is adapted from one in “A Change of Appetite” by Diana Henry.