Note: This post is not adorned with mouth watering photos that usually other food blogs contain (often unfairly). I say unfairly because these days I seem to be perpetually hungry because of browsing all of the colourful splash. May be we should make a food blog rule that all good food photos should follow after a warning – “Beware: Hunger inducing photos follow”. Getting back to the point, read on for a neat recipe.
Enlightment strikes in the most nonchalant ways. This time it struck me a couple of days back when my visiting mother in law causally gave me a recipe over a random chat. ‘Radish leaves are edible!!!”, I thought.
I usually leave the vegetable shopping to Satish – over the last one year he’s become an expert in picking vegetables from taro/arbi that does’nt turn ‘gooey’ to richly coloured eggplant with almost invisible seeds to radish that just has a mild taste. But this sudden enligtenment called for my rare appearance at Pazhamudir Nilayam yesterday, to scourge for radish leaves that are cut to be thrown away.
I had to convince the man near the radish stack that I was perfectly sane and definitely wanted only the leaves and not the radish. The girl at the sales counter was equally bewildered – “I cant bill for waste!!! What can you make out of this?!!”. I simply said, “I dont know, may be Masiyal” (which should make sense to any Tamilian). But she seemed even more confused. Perhaps, people who sell vegetables at Pazhamudir Nilayam need some cookery lessons.
Here’s the recipe for Radish Leaves.
Preparation time: 10 minutes, Cooking time: 10 minutes, Serves: 2
Ingredients
- 6 to 8 Radish Leaves
- 1/4 cup groundnuts
- 1 tsp chilli pepper
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
- 1/4 tsp mustard seeds
- a pinch of hing (asafoetida)
- Salt to taste
- Oil for cooking
Method
1. Remove the thick stem from behind the leaves.
2. Wash the leaves thoroughly – remove every ounce of dirt.
3. Fine chop the Radish Leaves.
4. Microwave the groundnuts for 45 seconds on high to roast them. You can also roast them with oil on a stove. Keep aside the groundnuts for cooling.
5. Microwave the leaves with turmeric, hing and a few drops of water on high for 4 minutes. Alternatively you can do this on a stove. Ensure that the leaves are well cooked and drain any excess water.
6. In a kadai, pour 1/2 tbsp oil and add mustard seeds. add the cooked radish leaves after the mustards crackle. Keep the flame low.
7. Coarsely grind the groundnuts in blender. Add this to the leaves in the kadai.
8. Add salt and chilli pepper. Cook on a medium flame for a thirty seconds to a minute. Transfer to a serving dish.
Serve hot with rotis, rice (or even pasta!!) and curd.
I made this for the morning breakfast to go with a modified version of a traditional pasta recipe that is cheeseless. Yes, there are lovely pasta recipes that are to be served without cheese and taste incredilbly good. But that calls for another post.
FootNote: The leaves are a wee bit bitter, so Satish who has baby like taste buds din’t quite enjoy. I recommend for those of you who dont like even a pinch of bitterness – the same recipe with paalak keerai. I loved the ‘kai’ although I admit that this is not something that can be consumed in large quantities.
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Lovely recipe, I too cook radish leaves, I love the slight bitter taste.
hi lakshmi
nice 2 know that radish leaves are edible. Usually, i will ask the vegetable wallah to cut the leaves and give it, on seeing your recipe i now realise how much of leaves i have wasted. Anyway henceforth i will not waste them.
Hi Lakshmi,
I have never cooked these leaves . Recipe looks nice. Waiting for your pasta recipe
My husband loves radish sandwiches but we’ve never eaten the leaves. We do love beet leaves and all kinds of kale. I’ll try this with the next bunch of radishes.
Yes they are!! I make Sambhar with them and many more.Beet leaves are edible too.Great recipe, thanks:))
dear Mrs. Latha,
can u post a recipe for soft, melt in the mouth mysorepak? AND AVIAL, with and without curd?
thanks
[...] Radish Leaves are edible [...]
Hi,
Thank you for inspiring me and letting me know that radish leaves are indeed edible. I did not make this version but made bisi bele bath with it and loved it.
Thank you again
May 9, 2008
My reply for you:
Greetings!
Thank you for the not so familiar information, but it may add to my list of toothsome foods. I may now start cooking using my own recipe that is embossed with the striped palatable Radish leaves.
Albert.
Just ate some, got a litte stomachache, but glad to find out that they’re okay !
Hey, I stumbled onto a site that mentioned radish leaf tea helps digestive problems. Now I suffer from Crohn’s so this caught my attention. The bitter taste can be, I want to say complimented for a lack of a better term, by using fresh parsley. I made some tea and was reading your posting, tried the leaves and yes they were bitter so I added parsley and rebrewed the tea ….. not bad at all, and the greens are good that way too. Maybe try cooking your leaves with parsley.
I was wondering, thanks, makes sense, they are edible, since turnip greens are. I have both growing in my garden. Waste not want not.
HI, i have a yummy recipe of radish leaves, finely chop radish leaves, soak one handfulf of yellow moong dal in hot water for half n hr, Do tadka with mustard urad dal, hing as u wish, add the leaves with lil turmeric once half done, add half to one grated radish and the soaked moong dal, just add salt and red chilli. That’s it, u can have this with rice or roti.
u know what…i just threw away lods of fresh radish and beetroot leaves. Btw can we cook beetroot leaves? i bought 2.5 kgs of fresh beet with the leaves at t nagar for just ten rupees. if the leaves can also be used …woww:-)
thank you! some friends just gave me radishes they got at the farmer’s market, and the leaves look lovely – i didn’t want to waste them…
[...] I put them in a quinoa salad I made and they were surprisingly tasty. So now I hope to try this recipe for radish [...]
Radish leaves from common varieties are not bitter at all. I eat them raw after washing them. Eat them like mint or tarragon along with any meal. If you like to try a unique salad, wash them, chop them and add lemon juice and some salt. Yummi!!! Olive oil is optional. I’ve been doing this for many years since my dad discovered it some 30 years ago.
we always cook the radish leaves along with the root.. radish leaves have a yummy bitter flavour..