Wednesday 20 July 2011

Can you eat radish leaves?



Yes you can!
This I have discovered today when I asked myself that question.
I had a big bundle of organic radishes and was loathe to throw away such abundant and healthy looking greenery. I sought and found confirmation that radish leaves are indeed  healthy and deliciously edible..
Here is where I first landed. A panoply of radishy options for the frugal chef.
And this is what I did for supper:

Radish leaf pesto.

It was delicious. And frooogal!
Into my blender I threw the radish leaves (that would ordinarily have been binned)
a generous handful each of hazlenuts and almonds,
a remnant of Grana Padano that was too old and hard to be grated over pasta,
three cloves of garlic ( more than was called for in the recipe, but I love garlicky pesto)
and some glugs of extra virgin olive oil.
The smell! I was swooning!

I stirred the sticky, fragrant deliciousness  into some pasta along with peas and stood back and watched my family polish off the lot and beg for more raw radish leaf pesto pasta.
Ahh.
Can I add that pudding was a kefir smoothie into which I pitched the remnants of a leftover raspberry coulis,
one wrinkled peach ( mouldy bit cut off)
A kiwi fruit,
a few frozen strawberries and blueberries( I always buy the organic ones when they are on offer and freeze them straight away for smoothies)
a brown banana
and the remains of a tub of just expired double cream.
Again, the children begged, whined and pleaded for more.
Gentle reader, I feel complete.

10 comments:

  1. You are a genius! Well done.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sue!
    You get it!
    I knew you would.
    We mamas understand eachother.

    ReplyDelete
  3. As no one in my family likes radishes I can't see that recipe happening any time soon but it sounds GREAT! Mine all LOVE regular pesto pasta and beg for it regularly. :o)

    Kefir we have every morning with breakfast and I make it with frozen strawberries and honey in it - yummy! The boys complain every morning, but my eldest has started saying that its not so bad anymore. Yeah! They are coming around. Hehehe!

    ReplyDelete
  4. ...we had fishfingers.

    ReplyDelete
  5. And beetroot leaves which are also good cooked!

    ReplyDelete
  6. What's for dinner tonight? I'll be right over!

    Wait...there's that ocean to cross, isn't there?
    Nuts...

    ReplyDelete
  7. DeeDee
    Apparently you can use other leaves in pesto too. Like celery, or nasturtium. After seeing Richards comment, I Googled Beetroot leaf pesto and found a recipe for that too!

    Anon, is that Paola? I think that "sounds" like Paola. And what? No allotment veg last night? tsk tsk.

    Richard
    Thanks for that. I often get beetroot in my veg box complete with leaves. That will be my next culinary experiment.

    Julie
    I made extra and you didn't show up.
    Tonight was just hummus and veggies. But the hummus was homemade and garlicked to the MAX. We are are going to be pungent tomorrow.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh and ps.
    I meant to add, apparently you can make pesto with carrot leaves too.
    I'm sure there is a lot of nutritive goodness in those bits of the plant that we commonly throw away.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Meant to say that beetroot leaves are good raw also....badly worded, sorry.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks Richard, how have you eaten them?
    Do you just put them in a salad?

    ReplyDelete

Changing The World: One Diaper At A Time.

The most important person on earth is a mother. She cannot claim the honor of having built Notre Dame Cathedral. She need not. She has buil...