Radishes are edible root vegetables whose botanical name is Raphanus sativus meaning white beauty. This is ironical since the roots are not always white. The root color ranges from pink to red to purple and even green and black. However, the most common root colors are pink and white. The roots can grow up to 24 inches long with the leaves growing up to 5 inches long. However, the root size depends on the variety of the radish.
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Another fun fact is that the leaves can be eaten too. The leaves are good when braised or sautéed in olive oil with roasted garlic, salt, and pepper (any pepper available). The leaves can also be used as the salad dressing as well or garnish in other meals.
Radishes have been known to have many health benefits and thus its use as a common vegetable. Some of the health benefits include:
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Various types of radishes
There are many varieties of radishes but the three main types of radishes namely:
How to Store Radishes
To those with love for radishes, you always want your radishes to stay longer once you buy them or harvest them from the farm.
Via Youtube.com: How to Store Radishes to keep them Fresh and Crisp for 1 week!
The following are ways you can store your radishes to keep them fresh and tasty for longer:
Read more: How Long Does Celery Last
How to store radishes in a fridge
The amazing thing about refrigeration is that the radishes will stay fresh for up to two weeks.
Freezing the radishes is another way of storing them. This method is simple and requires you to remove the leaves and store the roots in a zip lock or plastic bag and freeze them.
Via Youtube.com: Storing Radishes
When frozen, they can stay up to one month or even two if there are no power interruptions. However, freezing is not always recommended because the radishes will fall apart when they thaw because the roots fill up with water. Nonetheless, when this happens, you can make butter out of it which is also another way of using the radishes.
Freezing can also be done to the leaves only.
Read more: How To Store Broccoli For A Longer Time?
How to store radishes in sand or dirt
You can also store r adishes in sand or dirt. The temperature in the room where they are to be stored should be 34-42 degrees Fahrenheit (10-12.5 degrees Celsius).
For those of you with a dark room to do this in, it is advisable to remove the leaves before you use this technique otherwise the nutrients will be drawn from the radishes, and they will wither faster.
This method can stay up to 3 months.
Another way to store and preserve radishes is by immersing the roots in water. Fill a container with water and drop the radishes in. They will give you the impression that they are growing in water.
Another way of preserving them in water is by trimming the radishes and canning them in water. The leaves have to be removed as well as the small taproot extending out the bottom.
How to store radishes through buttering
This is an interesting way to store or preserve the radishes is my making butter out of them. This method acts both as a way to preserve the radishes as well as having an alternative preparation other than using radishes as salads.
This works well with those radishes that you want to salvage because they were split, cracked and storing them with other means will eventually lead to them rotting. The ingredients you need to make your butter are salted butter, chopped marjoram, sliced garlic greens, chopped fennel fronds and black pepper.
The first thing you need to do to make the radish butter is grated them. When done, add the butter and herbs and mix until thoroughly combined. Season it with the black pepper. You can put the radish butter in a jar. It can be used to spread on bread or as an accompaniment when eating nachos or crisps.
Radishes are wonderful edible vegetables but they are highly perishable if not stored properly. There are various ways that you can store your radishes, you just have to decide which one works best for you.
However, regardless of the method that you use to ensure that the nutrients are well preserved. Remember the wonderful health benefits radishes have and eat them as regularly as you can, at least every fortnight.
Via Youtube.com: How to Store Radishes to keep them Fresh and Crisp for 1 week!
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