When I was a little girl, my grandmother tried to surreptitiously add shaven radish to salads and spreads. She thought that the pungent notes would somehow go unnoticed. Well, they didn’t. I disliked radish with a passion, as I’m sure many other children might, too. Little did I know that it would later become one of the reasons why I look forward to the first spring harvest, however meager that may be. Radishes, rhubarb, some early chicory, wild garlic, and so forth miraculously make their appearance in the garden, and voila, they end up on our kitchen table dressed in delicious sauces.
After taking stock of what was in my basket, this time, I decided to try something I hadn’t done before: that is to roast the radishes rather than adding them to the salad in their raw form. They lost most of their spicy attitude and turned sweeter, though they were still refreshing. I added some spring potatoes and celery to prepare an unusual, yet delectable, Beltane salad that captured the spirit of this season of nature’s mundane miracles.
Easy to make and totally budget-friendly, serve it over buttered toast for brunch, lunch, or an afternoon snack.
Prep Time: 20-25 min | Roast and Cook Time: 30-40 min | Serves 4
Ingredients
the salad
- 1 lb radishes
- 1 tbsp EVOO
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp ground green peppercorn
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- 2 c chopped celery stalks
- 1 c shredded boston lettuce
- 2 medium yellow potatoes, boiled, peeled, and diced
- 1 comice pear, diced
- 4-5 strawberries, chopped
the dressing
- ¼ c cashew yogurt
- 2 tbsp tahini
- 1 tbsp avocado oil
- 1 tsp sweet mustard
- 1 tsp dried dill
- ½ tsp dried tarragon
Method
Turn your oven on set to 450°F for roasting. Coat the whole lot of radish in olive oil, salt, and green peppercorns. Roast for 20-30 minutes, depending on your oven. The radishes should be a little charred and caramelized. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool at room temperature.
Put the remaining salad ingredients in a mixing bowl, and add the radishes.
For the dressing, whip the yogurt, tahini, avocado oil, and sweet mustard with a whisk until smooth and incorporated. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix with a spoon.
Toss the salad in the dressing and serve with a warm butter toast.
Extras and Tips
If in a hurry, you can use the broil function on high to roast the radishes. Be careful with this setting, as the extreme heat will burn the radishes to coals.
After roasting, you can cut up the radishes if you prefer. If you’re serving the salad as a side dish to a larger meal, or jarring the salad for a picnic, it may be easier to have them sliced into bite-size pieces.
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