Radiant Radishes - Good for more than just salad! - oven braised radishes

This peppery, pink, little vegetable adds a wonderful crispness and bite to any summer salad and I adore the contrast of the cerise tinted skin against the firm white flesh.

As you know I can never pass a bargain in the market especially when I know I can make good use of it, and as the radishes were on offer 49c for 250 g, how could I not grab some and take them home.


With each new year comes the resolution that we will make a serious attempt to eat a little healthier than we did last year, and so far it has been successful, so a salad of some sort for lunch is almost a daily occurrence at the moment, except when the wind is howling and nothing but a heart warming bowl of soup will do! so I was positive I could make the most of these pink babies. But who would have thought that the humble little radish could be destined for greater things than a summery salad!

I had seen cooked radishes a few months ago possibly in a magazine or maybe on some online cookery site, and I was struck by how lovely they looked, it may just have been excellent photography, but it worked, and the inspiration machine was fired up. Since then I have often wondered exactly what cooked radishes would taste like. Would they retain that peppery goodness, should they be cooked so they still have a bite to them, or would they come out of the oven all shriveled and leathery.

For this recipe I have treated the radishes similar to how I would prepare any other oven roasted root vegetable such as swede or white turnip, and if you have a go at this radish dish you too will be surprised at how easy to cook and simply delicious, they are!

you will need: approx 2 - 3 servings

250 g radishes
2 medium red onions
 6 cloves garlic
sea salt
fresh black pepper
olive oil
fresh rosemary or thyme or a combination of both

how to:

• trim any root and leaves remaining on the radishes and give them a wash
• cut the radishes in half or quarters so they are all of an even size and place in a deep bowl
• peel the onion but try and leave the root end intact, cut the onion in half, then into thin wedges cutting away from the root end so the wedges hold together, add to the radishes
• remove any loose pieces of skin but don't peel the garlic cloves, add to the bowl
• season the vegetables with salt and pepper
• drizzle with a little olive oil and add some of the fresh herbs, you can leave them in whole sprigs or chop them as you like
• toss everything together and place in a deep sided roasting tin
• cook gently in the oven at 160oC approx 20 minutes until the radishes are tender and the onions have caramelized
• scatter with some more fresh herbs and serve straightaway

If you want to roast other root vegetables with the radishes just make sure that you cut them all to an even size so everything will cook at the same pace.