Yesterday, I was browsing through the nutritional guidebook – Wellness Foods AtoZ of UC Berkeley. The authors mentioned in that book, that radish-the root vegetable, has less than 25 calories per cup and supplies impressive amount of vitamin-C: 29 percent of the daily requirement in 1 cup of red radish slices. Not bad, right.
When it comes to cooking these red ping-pong ball sized beauties of spring, I have a strict dietary preferences. I don’t like them overcooked or raw. Overcooking usually results in no flavor and raw means the smell. Simple 5-minute stir-fry is a perfect way to enjoy their crisp flavor without the loss of nutrients and is the most common way I prefer. Because I do buy them almost every weekend during springtime from local farmers market, I had to come up with different ways to prepare this completely new vegetable (We don’t get this veggie at Nandyala). One way I make it more enticing is stir-frying it with baby potatoes and baby lima beans. Good and easy recipe with delicious crunchy results.
Recipe:
12 to 15 fresh red radishes – ends trimmed and sliced into medium thick rounds
6 to 8 baby potatoes – Boiled in water until just tender and quartered into 4 chunks
½ cup of baby lima beans – or any kind of beans like chickpeas/nuts of your liking
1 onion – finely chopped
seasoning
1 teaspoon of red chilli-garlic powder
½ teaspoon of each – turmeric and salt (or to taste)
For popu or tadka
1 teaspoon of peanut oil
½ teaspoon of cumin, mustard seeds, minced garlic and few curry leaves.
1 Do the tadka – Heat one teaspoon of peanut oil and add and toast tadka ingredients – cumin, mustard seeds, minced garlic and curry leaves.
2 Add and sauté onions, radishes and baby lima beans for few minutes on medium heat, stirring in-between, until they reach the crunchy/soft consistency you desire.
3 Stir in quartered potatoes and the seasoning (chilli-garlic powder, turmeric and salt). Cook for a further couple of minutes.
4 Serve hot with chapatis or with rice and dal.
Radish-Potato Curry Salad with chapatis and tomato dal
what delicious looking fry Indira….
Comment by santhi — May 18, 2006 @ 1:41 pm
Red is an eye-catching color isn’t it?:)
Hey, congrats on your new blog, love the red watermelon template design.
Comment by Indira — May 18, 2006 @ 1:44 pm
Wow…they look delicious…I’ve only used them is salads so far…but will definitely try this in stir fry..do you think it’ll roast well in the oven?
Comment by Nabeela — May 18, 2006 @ 1:56 pm
That looks so good. The masala powder seems to cling perfectly onto the veggies. When the radishes in my garden are ready to eat I am thinking of using this recipe. How is the google ads working out for you?
Comment by Gini — May 18, 2006 @ 2:00 pm
Nice color ! Have not tried this combo. Sounds interesting. Will try it.
Indira replies:
Thanks and if you try let me know how you like it.
Comment by Krithika Ramachandran — May 18, 2006 @ 2:09 pm
Hey Indira, It is from your blog only,I started to even ‘think’ about radish as something to cook with. You dont take out the skin,do you?
What colour these little cuties have!
Indira replies:
They have a very delicate skin, LG and I prefer it with skins on and they do taste delicious – crunchy and lightly sweet, try them.
Comment by L.G — May 18, 2006 @ 2:11 pm
Hi Indira,
I like radishes cooked in a stir-fried way too…the crunch they have in them is very good. I buy them often too and generaly use them in Sambar or like the first recipe u posted. ( Was surprised to see that u cooked it the exact same way I was doing it ). Will try ur recipe soon. And another thing is…I generally take off the skin of the radish cos I dont seem to find them clean in the stores and repeated cleaning also does not render them perfectly clean…But u dont seem to do that..! Any tips..??
Comment by Ptiya — May 18, 2006 @ 2:17 pm
Hi Nabeela, thanks. Roasting in oven for few minutes is also another way to prepare this curry. Tastes great and easy too.
Hi Gini, thanks.
Produce fresh from garden, that’s living the life.:)
I just wanted to try Google ads to see if atleast I would be able to cover the hosting costs. Not bad at all.
Comment by Indira — May 18, 2006 @ 2:22 pm
Hi, I like the way the stir-fry looks in first picture. I am not a great fan of radish so far, but your picture is tempting me to try one more time :). Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Comment by Cooking Theory — May 18, 2006 @ 3:00 pm
Hi Indira,
WOW ,i just like the pictures and radish curry .
I will never peel of radish,Indira. My mom says nutrients will go out. I believe that and I follow also.Thats why i liked radish pulov also. I really love the taste and color of baby radish. One day I did cut them in rounds and used as upper layer(it appears like “pepperoni” on my pizza and it tasted good too.
I have to try this potato – radish fry.
Vineela
Indira replies:
Me too, I’d never peel radishes, a big time waste.
Adding them as topping on pizza, what a good idea, I’ll do that for next my pizza baking. Thanks for sharing, Vineela.
Comment by vineela krishna — May 18, 2006 @ 4:13 pm
Indira,
Love your website. Haven’t tried any of your recipes yet but keep looking at them.
Your blog posts do not get updated in Bloglines – wanted to let you know that.
Nithya
Indira replies:
Thanks Nithya.
Because of ‘splogs’, I had to stop giving out my blog feeds.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
Comment by Nithya — May 18, 2006 @ 4:31 pm
great receipe and nice pictures 🙂
Indira replies:
Thanks, Hema.
Comment by hema — May 18, 2006 @ 5:05 pm
HEy Indira…
I like the combination of vegetables you used here for the curry.It gives tonne of color and tonnes of goodness to the dish…
Indira replies:
I am glad you liked the combination, BDSN. I agree and they taste great too.
Comment by BDSN — May 18, 2006 @ 5:12 pm
Hi Indira,
I like the combination of radish and potatoes.
Excellent post.
Indira replies:
Thanks MT
Comment by menutoday — May 18, 2006 @ 10:51 pm
This looks so delicious! I love the colours of this dish.
I wish to compliment you on the quality of your pictures; fabulous, as always!
Indira replies:
Hi Rosa, nice to see your comment and thanks.
Comment by Rosa — May 19, 2006 @ 3:52 am
Apart from the Vit C,the rich red color of radish contains a variety of phytochemicals which is also beneficial to health.
Indira replies:
They are ping pong ball sized healthy veggies. Good to know, thanks for sharing Sumitha.
Comment by Sumitha — May 19, 2006 @ 3:55 am
I couldn’t resist the radishes at the market either and when I came home and saw your recipe I just knew it was fate. The dish was fantastically delicious yet simple and quick. Thanks and… Long live the farmers!
Indira replies:
I am glad you liked it, thanks Kate.
Comment by Kate from Canada — May 19, 2006 @ 1:13 pm
Tried this recipe yesterday and the dish was delicious. Thanks for sharing.
Comment by Nithya — May 20, 2006 @ 2:19 pm
Hi Indira,
I just happenned to chance upon your website and I loved it.
I tried a couple of recipes, the Aratikaaya koora (with channa dal) and the above radish recipe. They came out pretty good, tasted pretty delicious however I was dissapointed with the way they looked nothing like in your pictures!
By the way your pictures are awesome, if you dont mind can you let me out on your secret on what camera you use and how you take the pictures…
Keep this going. I love the picture of Kittaya with the necklace 🙂
P.S: I am working on my website and will soon give you peak into it.
Cheers
Latha
Comment by Latha — May 23, 2006 @ 9:30 am
This is ingenious! I used dried limas for this and it came out great. These three veggies are a fantastic combo. My husband loved it. I used my leftover radishes in sambar instead of daikon and it turned out great. For some reason, it never occurred to me to actually cook red radishes… Thanks! I love your site!
Indira replies:
I am glad you had success with this recipe and enjoyed it. Appreciate your feedback.
I’ve checked your webpage, saw your wedding pictures etc.
Wow, you were a beautiful bride. Hope you had time of your life in India.:) and congratulations!
Comment by Amy — May 25, 2006 @ 9:25 pm
Thanks!! 🙂
Comment by Amy — May 29, 2006 @ 5:12 pm
Hi Indira,
Made radish curry yesterday for dinner and it came out really well.Never thought that radish could be used in any way other than sambhar.This was the first time I bought red radish.Thanks for the recipe.Also I am planning to make soorakaaya koora for dinner tonite.Do you think it would be good with Butternut squash(yellow one)??.Dont know any Indian recipes with the squash and havent ever tasted it.God knows what I was thinking when I bought them.Hope to find a solution from you 🙂
Comment by Anu — June 14, 2006 @ 3:51 pm
I just wanted to let you know that I tried your curried radish potato dish last night. Will make it again, and again, and again :). Thank you.
Comment by MS — October 6, 2006 @ 9:15 am
Cooked this recipe today, with fresh green peas instead of lima beans. Tasted yum with chapati and dal rice. Never knew that red radish and potato can be such a combination. Thanks Indra Maam.
Comment by Nandita — March 8, 2007 @ 12:56 am
I was attracted to the color of this curry. I tried it and it tasted so yummy.. i make this curry very often now .. thanks for the tasty recipe.
Comment by EmBee — April 12, 2007 @ 12:19 pm
Hey Anu,
I tried it with the yellow squash, it came out good, but i had to let it sit unstirred in low-med flame for a long time in a broad kadai
i was inspired by indira!
embee
Comment by EmBee — April 23, 2007 @ 4:18 pm
i have not seen any reciepe for radish leaves .are they good to eat? i was asked that question but i didn’t know if they are good to eat. and how are they cooked if they are good to eat
Comment by lorraine cyr — May 27, 2007 @ 2:56 pm
Lorraine, I cook the leaves of red raddish and daikon raddish. Though it isn’t easy to get them as fresh as home grown here on the isle of Manahatta, N.Y.! Also I am reminded of the wonderful meals at your family owned
hotel where I was a visitor in the 1980’s.
Would that I could return. Best Wishes.
Comment by nyginko — December 21, 2010 @ 4:11 pm