Radishes used to be nothing but a nuisance for me. A summer CSA provided multiple bunches of the peppery roots every week, leaving me thumbing through Epi's best radish recipes again, and ultimately hoping this week would be their last. But this past winter, desperate for anything that would remind me of spring, I finally tried radishes in the classic French way: slathered with butter, sprinkled with salt. Now, I won’t eat radishes any other way.
What I will do is play with the combination—a different salt, a new butter. After all, I know that gluts of radishes are coming; it pays to be prepared to mix it up.
Sprinkle on flavored salt.
If you have celery leaves—or fennel fronds, or any number of herbs—you can make a seriously simple flavored salt.
Add bread to the equation.
Spread the softened butter on crostini and top with a layer of sliced radishes and a bit of salt. Or do the same thing between a halved baguette. Gild the lily by adding some chopped fresh chives or a handful of arugula, which chef Steven Sattefield suggests in his cookbook Root to Leaf.
Make compound butter.
Got extra fresh herbs lying around? Chop those up and stir them into that softened butter. Want something even punchier? Do the same thing with anchovies and garlic.
Use the radish greens to make pesto.
Don't toss those radish tops! Blitzed in a food processor with olive oil, garlic, nuts, and cheese, they make a great pesto. Serve alongside the butter and salt for dipping your radishes into. Or slather some on your radish and butter sandwich.
Swap out the butter for olive oil.
It's hard to say no to good butter. But sometimes you want something a little earthier, a little more grassy. That's when you start dipping radishes in extra-virgin olive oil instead.
