Spicy Pickled Radishes

Pickled vegetables have become a staple in our kitchen, being delicious, nutritious and versatile. With it being early in the growing season, we will start off this year's vegetable preservation recipe series by showing you how to pickle radishes - making this fast, easy growing vegetable even tastier.

Radishes are a great beginner vegetable to have a go at growing. What makes them so easy to grow is the fact that they love poor quality soil and also have a very quick turnaround, so they will give you a crop about 3-4 weeks from planting. They are one of the first vegetables we start harvesting here on the farm, so they always give a boost of motivation in the early summer. We are always experimenting with different flavours, but our favourite recipe at the moment is this:

Ingredients:

25 radishes

35cl cider vinegar

35cl water

3tsp salt

1.5tsp pepper flakes

0.5tsp coriander seeds

0.75tsp mustard seeds

0.5tsp dried dill

This should make around 3x 400ml jars of pickled radishes

Method:

Prepare the radishes: Wash the radishes in cold water. Cut the tops and bottom of the radishes. Slice the radishes into 0.5cm slices. (We grew and picked out radishes but you can get yours from a local producer).

Make the brine: Pour the cider vinegar and the water into a medium sized pan and bring to the boil. Add the salt, pepper flakes, seeds and dill. Simmer for a further 2 minutes to infuse the flavours. Turn off the heat and add the radishes for 1 minute in the hot brine. This will kill any wild yeasts on the radishes, which stops the brine and radishes from fermenting in the jars.

Transfer, cool & label: Transfer the radishes and brine into sterilised jars (try to get an even distribution of seeds and dill into each jar). Let the jars cool for 1 day in the fridge. Label and enjoy the next day. The radishes will keep in the fridge for up to 6 months.

You can use these pickled radishes in and alongside salads. We also find the spicy radish flavour works especially well with venison and wild meats - the acidity helps cut through the richness of the meat.