Radishes, Spring and Pesto

Radish season is nearly upon us!  I think of radishes bunches as colorful symbols of spring like tulips.  Spring is my favorite, favorite, favorite season, it's when everything wakes up and come alive again.  The weather is getting warmer and birds are chirping again and best of all it means it's time to start farming again!  Ahhhh, I love it.  This spring, I think I am even more excited for the radish greens than the roots, which is saying a lot because colorful radish roots are irresistible in my book, I impulse buy them like they are the check-out lane candy bars of produce.

A big reason for the radish green excitement is stumbling upon a blog entry with a recipe for Radish Leaf Pesto on chocolateandzucchini.com.  I can't wait to try this recipe with some pasta.  This site has gotten me seriously excited to start cooking again.  Also stumbled upon an Indian recipe called Mullangi keerai poriyal that looks superb and there is always the option of tossing some of the younger greens into spring salads.

There are, of course, a ton of things to do with the roots too.  I love them with goat cheese and herbs...  I found several sites with directions for carving radish roots into nifty roses to use as a garnish or just a way to spice up a veggie platter.  It looks pretty easy too.  I think black roses made from Black Spanish Round Radishes would be super cool...


Photo from: http://www.biscuit.co.jp/ken/ken_portfolio/spanish.html