Cooked Radish?

Turnips again! YAY! I'm totally not being sarcastic because these vegetables are absolutely delicious and I actually missed them in the last veggie box.

I got a very simple recipe for them, courtesy of our ethics professor, Carol Robb. Basically, you boil them a little bit and then saute them in butter. Heaven!!!!!!

This box also came with some white radishes, and I had some strawberry daikon radishes from the previous box, which got me thinking. Why had I never encountered cooked radishes before? I quick search online helped me to see that radishes are not a one trick salad and pickle pony. (I guess that would be two tricks though, huh?)

Since I was going to cook the turnips anyway, I decided to just prepare the radishes the same way. Once cooked, radishes loose almost all of their pepperiness and gain a subtle sweetness and nuttiness, not unlike the cooked turnips.

So, here it is, as simple as can be, turnips and/or radishes sauteed in butter:

Clean the radishes and/or turnips well; cut off the tops and any stringy roots. They should not be peeled. I like leaving some of the bases of the leaves on, as they make the finished product look very rustic and homey, not to mention the nice contrast in texture that they give while eating them. Just be careful because there can be a lot of dirt trapped in there, so clean well!

Cut the vegetables into wedges. Cutting them into eighths seems to work well.

In your largest saute pan, over high heat, add enough of the vegetables to cover the bottom of the pan, and add enough water to come up about a fourth of the way up the vegetables. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt. When the water is about half gone, flip each piece to cook the other side.

When the water is gone, add a pat of butter. The amount will depend on how large your pan is and how much butter you want in this. You won't need very much. Toss the vegetables around in the pan until the butter is completely melted, then spread the vegetables around the bottom of the pan again. Once they have browned a little, flip them and brown the other side.

Depending on how many turnips and/or radishes you intend to cook, you may have to do this in batches, but the entire process is only about 5 minutes, so it goes pretty quickly.

Bon Appetit!