Description

A simple Spring radish recipe using fresh herbs for a pesto. Roasting radishes tones down the spice and brings out the sweetness.

Ingredients

Scale

Roasted Radishes:
1 large bunch of radishes even 2 is good. If you don’t have too many but they are spicy add in a few turnips or a yellow beet to this dish. A kohlrabi can also work great!
1 tbsp olive oil
1 shallot or 2 green garlic or garlic scapes chopped roughly
Salt and Pepper to taste

Pesto:
Greens from the Radishes a good handful is all you need.
2 tbsp Olive Oil (use the really good stuff if you have it)
Juice of 1 Lemon
1/4 cup pine nuts (if you want alternatives see this post for more ideas of nut and see alternatives)
1 Garlic clove
Sea Salt
Pepper

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Instructions

Begin by heating the oven to 400 degrees and placing a silicone mat or parchment paper on a rimmed baking sheet.
Half or quarter the radishes and any other root veggies you decide to add and place them on the baking sheet. Roughly chop your garlic/shallot/scapes whatever you have on hand. I have even use ramp bulbs as well.
Drizzle them with the tbsp of Olive Oil and sprinkle with Salt and Pepper.
Toss them to coat evenly. Get your hands in there because this is the best way to get the veggies well coated.
Then spread them evenly on the baking sheet and make sure they aren’t touching or overlapping at all. This will insure they get a good crisp on them.
Once the oven has preheated place them in the middle and let cook for 20 minutes or until getting crispy on the edges and the skin wrinkles.
Add all the pesto ingredients into the food processor or blender. Blend till it is the desired texture.
Allow the radishes to cool but are still slightly warm and then mix them with the pesto till they are fully coated. Add the pesto a little at time till they coated. Save any additional pesto to make a dressing later in the week or add to a soup or even a pasta dish.
Serve the roasted radishes on the greens and top with a little more pepper and some chive blossoms or another herb flower if you have them in the garden.
Enjoy!

Notes

I like to serve this on a bed of greens and let the pesto dress the greens underneath. You can use nearly any green you have on hand or in the garden like pea shoots, spring mix, butterhead…truly any nice mild green will be great.