Stephencooks

I roast vegetables all the time in my countertop oven: beets, shallots, cipollinis, peppers, cauliflower, leeks, tomatoes, sprouts, Jerusalem artichokes - you name it, it seems I've roasted them. I just toss them in some oil (and herbs, sometimes), set the oven at 425º and roast them from 30 to 60 minutes, depending on how big the individual pieces are. But I never thought to roast radishes until this spring. The early radish crop is among the most colorful of the vegetables on offer from our local farms so I kept coming home with them – sometimes several bunches – which led to thoughts about what I could do with them that I hadn't done before. 

Of course, no sooner had I roasted a bunch and decided they were blogworthy did I find that I'm not the first to think of this, and that in fact it's a trend that was highlighted in the New York Times just a month ago. Kalyn, by the way, is always in front of the curve: she blogged about them three years ago!

How do they taste? Sweet, and softer to the tooth, but there's still a hint of the classic radish bite. I didn't obscure the taste with lemon, garlic or a heavy dose of herbs because I wanted to keep the radish in my salad while bringing in something new. 

This salad was built around the radishes, but also included roasted shallots, fresh cherry tomatoes, mixed spring greens (including some colorful and tender baby beet greens) and a few grilled shrimp. A simple vinaigrette, passed at the table, made this a wonderful accompaniment to some pan-seared filets mignon and a crusty baguette. 

As you might expect, this salad fits nicely in a low-carb diet for glucose control, as well as in calorie-controlled regimens, at only 12 grams of carbohydrates and 135 calories per serving.