Ingredient

Radish

A radish is mostly water and mustard chemistry. The heat is the same family of compounds that makes mustard and horseradish sharp, and it is produced when the cells are broken — which is why a whole radish smells of nothing and a bitten one is peppery.

Where the heat comes from, and how to turn it off

Radishes contain glucosinolates, stored separately from the enzyme that acts on them. Damage the cell — bite it, slice it, grate it — and the two meet, and the reaction produces the pungent compounds you taste as heat. Grating a radish makes it noticeably hotter than slicing it, for exactly this reason.

The compounds are volatile and heat-sensitive, so cooking destroys the pungency almost entirely. A roasted radish is sweet, mild and faintly turnip-like, with no heat at all, and people who have only eaten them raw are usually surprised by this.

Soaking sliced radishes in iced water also mellows them somewhat and crisps them considerably, which is why French radishes are served in a bowl of ice.

The radishes

Round red radish

The common salad radish. Crisp, peppery, mild. Best raw and best fresh — they go pithy quickly.

French breakfast radish

Oblong, red with a white tip. Milder and sweeter than round ones. The classic with butter and salt.

Mooli or daikon

Large white Asian radish. Very mild, juicy, faintly sweet. Used grated in Japanese cooking, pickled in Vietnamese and Korean, and simmered in stews where it becomes soft and translucent.

Watermelon radish

Green-white outside, vivid pink inside. Mild, and mostly grown for how it looks sliced.

Black radish

Rough black skin, white flesh, considerably hotter than the others. Winter keeping variety.

Ways to use them

• With butter and salt. Whole raw radishes, good salted butter, flaky salt. A French classic and still the best thing to do with a really fresh bunch.
• Sliced very thin into salads, where their crunch and pepper do more work than a lettuce.
• Roasted, halved, in oil and salt, until browned and tender. Completely transformed — sweet and mild, and one of the more surprising things in this section.
• Quick-pickled, sliced thin in vinegar and sugar. Half an hour, and they turn hot pink if you use red ones.
• Grated into a slaw with carrot and apple.
• Mooli grated as a condiment, alongside tempura or grilled fish in Japanese cooking.
• Mooli and carrot pickled as đồ chua for a bánh mì.
• Braised or simmered in stock, which suits mooli particularly — it becomes soft, translucent and savoury.

The tops

Radish leaves are edible and are thrown away almost universally. They are slightly hairy and peppery raw, which puts people off, and both problems disappear the moment they are cooked.

Treat them as you would any robust green. Wilted in olive oil with garlic, they are good on toast or through pasta. Blitzed into a pesto with nuts, cheese and oil, they work well and cost nothing. In a soup, particularly a potato soup, they add a peppery note. Added to a stir-fry at the end.

They wilt fast, so if you buy a bunch with good leaves, use them within a day or two — sooner than the radishes themselves.

Common questions