- Author: Dan Macon
Storage crops like potatoes, onions, beets, and winter squash are always part of our winter vegetable rotation, but what do you do when you need that crunch we so love from fresh produce? I turn to the daikon! A much beloved staple in many Asian cultures, one large daikon radish usually lasts about a week in a typical Japanese household with each section of the white root used for different dishes. From pickled daikon called takuan to braised rounds, this mild radish can be pickled, dried, cooked, fermented to make kimchi or consumed in the simplest fashion, raw.
I am a vegetable and flower farmer in a particularly cold part of Nevada County. Unless we cover our winter vegetables under tunnels, the frosts and birds make our greens not very appealing. Even with handfuls of the especially sweet winter spinach there just isn't the variety of summer vegetables to choose from, so it takes a little more effort to eat our vegetables.
Simply slice daikon like a cucumber in a sandwich, add it to a slaw with carrots and cabbage, grate it finely to add to dipping sauces, or do a quick pickle in vinegar and mirin.
We add daikon to many meals as a simple and delicious condiment by grating a large bowl and sprinkling rice wine vinegar over it. Every bite of a stir-fry, roasted vegetables or meat, or falafel can be enhanced with the addition of a little daikon.
You will be surprised at how this one vegetable can bring so much variety to winter cooking flavors!
Where to find Daikon: Look for this great white root on Saturdays at the Auburn Farmers Market in the courthouse parking lot. You can also purchase it year round from most grocery stores. Pick out roots that are firm with bright green tops, they should not give when squeezed, then store in a plastic bag without the tops for up to two weeks. The most enjoyable way to get daikon is to grow your own! Kids love to pull the monster roots from the ground, and by dedicating just a few square feet of a deeply tilled garden bed to direct seed Raphanus sativus in early September, you can enjoy it through the winter.
~Deena Miller, Sweet Roots Farm