Cast Iron Skillet Fried Radishes with Sour Cream and Chive Dip
It's radish season! Even if I didn't like radishes, I would probably still grow them just for the satisfaction of being able to harvest an edible so quickly. From planting to picking is about 25-30 days depending on the variety and it's nice that you can plant them fairly early in the season, (usually before the last frost).
This year I planted 3 varieties of radish; Crimson Giant, French Breakfast, and Mantanghong (which is a new variety for me. All seeds are from Botanical Interests.
The French Breakfast Radishes are pick-ready in our garden right now. I went out with my daughter today and pulled the last ones. While I was there, I popped more seeds in the ground to start the cycle over again. In three weeks, (because the soil is warmer now) I'll have another bounty.
When I was a girl my grandma would serve me sliced radish on a buttered Club cracker with salt and I thought that was just about the fanciest, most delicious thing ever! I still eat them this way, but now I have a new favorite way to eat this fast growing veggie.
Fried! In a cast iron skillet of course!
This is really less of a recipe and more of a cooking technique and I promise you'll love them! Even my husband, who is not a radish fan, loves them cooked this way. Hash-browns are one of his favorite foods and these taste a LOT like fried potatoes. When you fry them, that spicy radish flavor mellows out completely. What's really nice is that they serve as a low carb/keto alternative to hash-brown fried potatoes.
1 cup radishes 3.9g carbohydrates, 1.9g dietary fiber
1 cup potatoes 12g carbohydrates, 1.8g dietary fiber
Fried Radishes
Cook time: 25 - 30 min.
1 lb radishes
2 Tbsp. Avocado oil.
salt
onion powder
garlic powder
black pepper
Wash and trim your radishes.
Cut into 8ths, (you want the pieces to be around 1/2 inch) Try to cut them relatively the same size so they brown evenly. Blot with paper towels. Drizzle the cast iron skillet with oil. Coat it generously. Let the pan heat for about 5-8 minutes. Take a test radish and throw it in. You want to hear that sizzle and see tiny grease bubble around the radish. When this happens, you can add all the radishes.
Shake the pan so that the radishes cover the pan in a single layer. Then set your timer for 5 minutes and don't touch them. Frequent flipping will result in soggy, not crispy radishes. When they start cooking, you will smell a kind of radish-y cabbage smell. It's important to note this because you will know they are done when this smell goes away and is replaced by a sweet, caramelized smell, similar to hash-browns.
When 5 minutes is up take a flat pancake flipper and flip the radishes from the center outward. Shake the pan, and let cook another 5 minutes. Don't touch!
About this time you should start to smell a bit of a delicious fried sweet smell. The red skins will start to wrinkle and blister. Also, listen to the sizzle. If the sizzle has stopped popping and has become more of a gentle, constant hiss, that means that a lot of the water has been cooked off the radish and you will get a good brown. This also means you can flip every 3 minutes or so.
When I cooked this batch, I flipped my radishes 6 times; two - 5 minute cooking periods and four - 3 minute cooking periods. In this time, the radishes had softened and the outsides had turned a lovely golden brown. In the last 3 minutes add your seasoning (garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper). It's important to do this at the last minute because the onion and garlic powder will burn easily. It's also important to add the salt at the end because salt leaches water out of vegetables and if you add it too soon in the cooking process, your radishes will steam, rather than brown. I've tried using fresh garlic and onions in this recipe and they also release too much water in the cooking process and makes it hard to get a good brown. The dried powders work great!
About 25 - 30 minutes total cook time.
Sour Cream and Chive Dip
1/2 cup sour cream (or Greek yogurt)
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 Tbsp. minced chives
1 tsp. minced dill
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. onion powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp pepper
Mix all ingredients and serve with radishes.
