We get boxed meals sent to our home each week via HelloFresh. This provides an opportunity for my husband and I to try a wide variety of dishes and I get to check out what’s trending in terms of ethnic cuisines and flavors. One item that has appeared over and over again recently is one that surprises me. This is none other than the bright red color, crisp texture and peppery flavor of radishes.
Raw radishes have often been used in the past as a salad topper or garnish – an item that I would ignore, pushing it to the corner of my plate. But now radishes are reemerging as pickled, roasted or served raw in a wide variety of global cuisines from Korean tacos to Hawaiian poke bowls, Mexican beef wraps and more.
USA Today announced roasted radishes as the “it food” for 2017. According to Packaged Facts, radishes were featured in more than twice as many restaurant menus in 2016 compared to 10 years ago. The report suggests its growth is attributed to consumer interest in heirloom varieties and ethnic cuisines as well as their desire for brightly colored, photogenic foods.
Duda has been featuring radishes cut to look like matchsticks with their MiniSticks™ packaging. Specialty items such as Watermelon Radishes, a heirloom from the Chinese daikon variety, are quickly taking center stage on the plate in foodservice. This creamy white specimen is green underneath but when sliced, the inside has a striated pink interior looking much akin to a watermelon which adds vibrant color and plate appeal. Sliced thin they are often used in salads, atop sandwiches, alongside sushi to name just a few of their many uses.
Interestingly, radishes are a member of the Brassicaceae – kale, broccoli, cabbage – family. And like their kale counterpart, they provide a long list of nutritional and health benefits. Along with vitamin C, radish offers folate, B vitamins and vitamin K as well as essential minerals that include potassium, manganese, magnesium, calcium, iron, phosphorous, sodium, copper and zinc.
The fiber, vitamins and minerals in radishes make them a smart choice for cardiovascular health. They’ve been shown to lower cholesterol, manage diabetes and regulate blood pressure and blood sugar levels.
So I can no longer ignore the radishes on my plate especially when they repeatedly show up on my doorstep in a box. And now that I’m aware of their health benefits, I’ll be slicing more radishes for my salads, tacos and more in the future for sure.
