I love the idea of radishes. I just can't stand the horrible sulfury/bitter taste. I tried numerous varieties in the last several years and in 2020 must have grown a dozen different. I love the idea of being able to rack off a crop in a month but the end result is unusable to me. I'm sure I'm not the only one as I couldn't even give away the mounds of radishes I harvested last year. They ended up making compost.

I'm ready to give up on them for good. But I also don't want to leave avenues unexplored. So, for those of you who might eat them but not like the taste, are there ways to make them more palatable?

Remember that radish is just domesticated chicory, so it's bound to be bitter.
Here's a way to make the things somehow more palatable: pick it up before the blooms develop, boil for just a few seconds in slightly salt water, then stir fry with a tiny bit of oil, garlic and spices (there are different varieties: black pepper, pimento, hot pepper etc).

There's an Italian cultivar called "Barba di Cappuccino" which is the least bitter radish I can think of. I grew it one year but, honestly, there are better leaf vegetables to grow.
The famed "Radicchio Rosso di Treviso", which goes for silly prices, is a specific radish cultivar grown in conditions somehow reminiscent of Rhubarb Sheds precisely to remove the bitter chicory/radish taste. I doubt you want to try growing that.

PS: I went to a primary school run by nuns and, guess what, we were given plenty of radish for lunch. Chopped, raw and barely dressed. I am not so sure you want to try that.

I have discovered The more water the less hot flavor , I don't like hot.I water every other day when I see the bulb start to form.
I actually like radish sandwiches soft white buttered bread and sliced radishes, a spicier take on the English cucumber sandwich.

I was always frustrated by spring radishes. They'd bolt. Maybe I planted too late. Maybe I should have used fertilizer to help the quick growth they are supposed to have.
I did better with fall radishes, and fantastic with a Korean radish this fall.

I like radishes. But I can understand your problem as for me fresh tomatoes are unbearably bitter... This means I simply cook or pickle the tomatoes.

If you are determined to eat radishes, try preparing them different ways. Slice them thin and make one day pickles. Try oven roasting them with oil and seasonings like potatoes. Simmer them in broth (this is a common daikon dish). As ElPolloDiablo said: blanch and then stir fry. Depending on what is causing the bitter flavor, one of these treatments might work.

I apologize; on re-reading I realize you are growing plenty of the, just getting a bitterness problem. I have no idea.

This is strange; you like radishes but dislike the taste of radishes.
Things get curiouser and curiouser.

I like the *idea* of radishes...quick crop, easy, no pest issues, can grow in small containers. I've been trying to find out if there are some I could add to my diet. I had not considered cooking them, nor even pickling which is odd, since I can eat pickled daikon. I'll try again and see if any of those methods allows me to make palatable use of them. Thanks all!

I love mild radishes, can't take much heat.
The daikon were new to me and I had so many I used some as a soup vegetable. like a turnip etc.

sallyg said:I love mild radishes, can't take much heat.
The daikon were new to me and I had so many I used some as a soup vegetable. like a turnip etc.

I used to grow them every year; I would pig out on radish sandwiches and dad loved them but besides me no one who would eat from my garden would really eat many.

UrbanWild said:I like the *idea* of radishes...quick crop,

THAT -- is an odd concept to me; I have never grew anything, that I did not first taste to see if I like it, ever.

RpR said:
THAT -- is an odd concept to me; I have never grew anything, that I did not first taste to see if I like it, ever.

I don't just grow for me. I give vegetables to 4-6 families other than my own.

RpR said:
THAT -- is an odd concept to me; I have never grew anything, that I did not first taste to see if I like it, ever.

But... How do you taste it if you don't grow it?

Every time I read 'radish people' I think of radishes with arms and legs and faces

ElPolloDiablo said:Remember that radish is just domesticated chicory, so it's bound to be bitter.
Here's a way to make the things somehow more palatable: pick it up before the blooms develop, boil for just a few seconds in slightly salt water, then stir fry with a tiny bit of oil, garlic and spices (there are different varieties: black pepper, pimento, hot pepper etc).

There's an Italian cultivar called "Barba di Cappuccino" which is the least bitter radish I can think of. I grew it one year but, honestly, there are better leaf vegetables to grow.
The famed "Radicchio Rosso di Treviso", which goes for silly prices, is a specific radish cultivar grown in conditions somehow reminiscent of Rhubarb Sheds precisely to remove the bitter chicory/radish taste. I doubt you want to try growing that.

PS: I went to a primary school run by nuns and, guess what, we were given plenty of radish for lunch. Chopped, raw and barely dressed. I am not so sure you want to try that.

- Except they have nothing to do with chicory. Chicory is a Compositae, like dandelion, daisies and mums; radishes are crucifers like mustard and cabbage. The crucifer family members produce some interesting secondary metabolites that taste differently to different people, it's inherited in human families.

binfordw said:But... How do you taste it if you don't grow it?

Buy a small amount.
Or snatch one from a salad bar.

I'd hate to formulate my opinion of tomatoes based on the flavorless, mealy tomatoes at the market or salad bar.

Good point, Urban.

This thread just reminded me of a really lame science project my daughter did when she was about 9 in the mid-1990s. It was about the time that Miracle Gro became the leading fertilizer on the market and folks where I lived seemed to be indiscriminately drenching everything with it. She planted three sets of radishes in sterile potting soil, fertilizing one set with full-strength MG, one set with 1/2-strength, one set without. I can't remember the point of the project unless it was to prove my own opinion at the time that MG was formulated too strong Looking back, I realize there were some fundamental problems with that whole setup

KatyaKatya said:

- Except they have nothing to do with chicory. Chicory is a Compositae, like dandelion, daisies and mums; radishes are crucifers like mustard and cabbage. The crucifer family members produce some interesting secondary metabolites that taste differently to different people, it's inherited in human families.

Thank you for that, Katya - it didn't sound right to me but I was too lazy to look it up.

ElPollo, I think you are confusing "radish" and "radicchio."

Zoe
yes it is about process, not really quality results, isn't it my son grew bean seedlings and then watered them with water, vineger , cooking oil..Groundbreaking stuff there.

I grow some asian greens that I've never tasted before that- but basically all the asian greens are a brassica so can't go too wrong. I planted red giant mustard having never tasted it- that was a gamble. I think it was just so pretty.

( I still see radish people)