The following recipe for Stir-Fried Radish Pods is from Mrs. Alaska. She lives at a remote homestead in Alaska. Since 2011, she has been blogging at: Alaska Bush Life, Off-Road, Off-Grid [1].
Radishes are among the easiest and fastest vegetables to grow and harvest. The aptly named dix-huit jours varietal can be harvested a mere 18 days after germination! However, if you are willing to wait longer – 6 – 8 weeks – you are rewarded with so much more to eat than one small root. The young leaves are edible raw, in salads, the older leaves (which get leathery) are a fine pot herb addition to cooked dishes, and best of all, each plant puts out scores of tasty, crunchy seed pods that are very easy to harvest, by “zipping” a dozen at a time off the branches and then plucking off each short stem.
An added plus is that the plants sport pretty sprays of white or pink flowers on long, whippy branches, so I plant many throughout my vegetable and flower gardens and harvest hundreds of pods. Our honeybees love the flowers.
Many American recipes for pickling can be found on the Internet. I favor other preparations. Raw, I eat radish pods as a snack, alone or with a dip, and throw them in green, egg, or tuna salads for the hollow, juicy crunch with a mild, radish flavor.
Quickly cooked, they are a colorful and flavorful addition to rice, noodle, or veggetable stir-fries.
I also blanch a gallon for winter use, but this does produce a texture more like a steamed bean.
Recipes for Asian and Mediterranean stir-fried radish pods
Coat a wide pan lightly with your oil of choice, such as sesame or coconut oil for Asian flavors, or olive oil for a Mediterranean style. Use peanut oil for its high smoke point if you want to char the pods for that nice texture/flavor.
Heat the oil quite hot. Add the aromatics (your choice of amount) such as garlic, green onions, hot peppers, curry, ginger (Asian styles) or oregano and garlic (Mediterranean). Stir constantly until the scents are released, less than a minute. Dump in the pods. If you add a huge amount, they will steam from their own internal liquid. If you add fewer, you will get a drier, crunchier product. Stir so that the pods become glossy with the oil and coated with the aromatics and become a brighter green. This takes a mere minute or two. Remove from heat. Pour and stir a bit of soy sauce for Asian style or lemon juice for a Mediterranean flavor. Serve immediately.
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