well we eat a lot of radishes in salads and they are wonderful pickled. Roasted beets, pickled beets ...turnips are wonderful boiled, or roasted....The wonderful part is that these thing grow at a time of year when other things don't.

I love radishes in salads but I also like to use them as a "salsa" for tacos. Look at the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pork tacos with radish-avocado salsa

Here is another recipe. Sorry for the second post. I could only do one link at a time. Both of these recipes are tried and true. I love them both!

Here is a link that might be useful: Fish tacos with radish salad

Thanks! Those sound amazing. I just always imagined eating the things like apples (my grandpa used to eat onions like apples) and it didn't seem too appealing. :)

I'm guessing they go out before everything else around here?

I really tried to like raw radishes - I gave them every chance in the world - but I think they're sort of gross, and sharp, and...radishy. I do, however, LOVE cooked radishes. They take on sort of a mellow, turnip-like flavor, and make a great side-dish. Or, if you're like me, you can cook up a whole pot and eat them for dinner by themselves.

My favorite way of cooking them is by braising them with butter. I don't really measure, but here's the jist:

2 tbsp. butter
2 stalks of green onion, chopped
3 bunches of radishes (or maybe 18-20 radishes), halved or quartered, depending on the size
1 can chicken or vegetable stock
water

In a saucepan, melt the butter and sautee the green onions until they become fragrant and very lightly brown. Add in the radishes and toss for a couple minutes, then add in the can of chicken stock and enough water to bring the level of liquid just below the tops of the radishes. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer until radishes are tender (~20 minutes). There should be a fair amount of "sauce" remaining in the pan - if there's too much liquid, scoop the radishes into a bowl, and reduce the sauce until it's slightly thickened, then return the radishes to the pot to warm them back up.

As far as beets go, you can't beat them roasted. I just rub them with a little olive oil, toss 'em onto a cookie sheet and bake at 425 until they're tender, then peel and eat with salt and sometimes some olive oil. They are GREAT on a salad of mixed greens, candied walnuts, and goat cheese.

epicurious.com and foodtv.com are your friends

Lol, dicot. I had almost the same experience as your dad the first time I ate beets in any significant quantity. As with most things I discover I like, I overdo them initially, so I ate many, many, many beets one evening. After I tinkled for the first time, I started hyperventilating, thinking that I was hemorrhaging. The stupid thing is that I literally thought, "Oh no! I wonder if I'm having an allergic reaction to the beets and they're making me bleed internally!" Somehow I failed to put two and two together immediately. 10 minutes later, it dawned on me, and I had a serious face-palm moment.

I love my beets, our clay gives then such a deep, earthy flavor that roasts really nicely. Tonight I diced & roasted them in the dutch oven along with chicken, yams, onions, cabbage & cauliflower with a garlicy bbq sauce and it only took 10 minutes of prep.

You can wrap beets individually in foil & bake, rubbing them in oil & dusting with garlic salt first is something I do often. Then once roasted, it can be eaten hot or stored in the foil and diced & eaten cold in salads. I like them simply steamed too, but the timing between over- and under-steamed is a bit short. Homegrown beets just make me feel healthy when I eat them, something I never knew until the last 2 years.

In an rather embarrassing moment, I fed my dad too many beets and thought nothing of it and he feared he had bloody stool the next day and drove himself to the ER. Whoops. Yes, beets stain EVERYTHING.

Two kind of radishes, (1) small short season, the size of pecan/walnut, some maybe slightly longer..etc.
(2) Long season radishes, as Asian markets sell, some can weight several pounds each. Some are mild/sweet and some can be spicey like horseradish or mustardy. The first, are mostly eaten raw, alone or in salad. Do not forget the tender tops. They are mild and can be added to salads.
The latter, large radishes can be eaten raw with salt, pepper, winegar, oil just like cucumbers. Can be also cooked like turnips.Chinese/Koreans pickle them in red hot sauce a lot.
Beats, as far as I know, can be only eaten cooked. I prefer baking or steaming in crack pot. THEY NEED LOOOONG TIME TO REALY COOK WELL
Now that you (OP) want to try them, why not plan to do a fall planting this year. In zone five probably you can start in late july(Not sure, check with your fellow zoners). I do fall-planting of large/chinese type radishes.
They last all winter and stay in the garden. Just pick as many as needed, when needed. No harvesting, unless your garden will be covered with several foot of snow. lol

Iron Chef America recently did a battle Radish. One of the things they made was radish ice cream and the judges raved about it. That makes me want to get an ice cream machine and experiment. I also like the idea of adding them to cold slaw for an additional layer of flavor. Radish Roses are a great garnish.

Wow, the recipe with green onion and chicken broth is right up my alley.

I did some searching online and found so many different kinds of radishes- black ones, solid white, even purple inside. They're gorgeous. And beets- gold ones, striped ones, cylindrical ones.

What are the best tasting or easiest to grow? I know my way around other veggies quite well, but I guess it's never occured to me to grow these. Thanks!

Here is one I found by accident, radish root thin sliced and dusted with corn meal salted and eaten raw. Beets sreamed, boiled, baked, pickled and cooked beet tops. You made me hungry, Jum. Sreamed whole baby beets with a touch of butter, No peeling required.

Curt

I love beets roasted as well. A winter staple around my house is roasted root veggies. I'll take some beets, turnips, parsnips, potatoes, onion, carrot (pretty much any root veggie I have on hand). Chop them all up into small cubes. Toss with olive oil. Add some rosemary. Sprinkle on a bit of salt and pepper. Then bake until soft.

I pickled some beets using David Chang's recipe in his Momofuku Cookbook last year and that is my favorite way of eating beets now. I pickled chiogga beets and the fact that it was raw meant the pink circles are perfectly preserved inside. I ate them with just about anything, salad, congee, etc. You can of course also pickle radishes.

Roasting is also good for beets but it takes a long time.

That's a great recipe, AlaskaChris. You can switch in a mall amount of soup stock too for a more moist, less roasted taste, but the crisp skin is so good with oil. There's an Asian version with golden sauce - miso/curry/soy sauce - that's fantastic too, especially if you're a fine enough cook to get the sauce to the perfect glaze consistency w/o burning (not lightly charred, like my first try). Roasted roots are comfort food.

Must agree with Spaghetina that cooked radishes are surprisingly yummy and very different from raw. I've attached a link to my own favorite recipe for cooked radishes.

One of my favorite ways to eat beets is in Russian salad (not the real thing, according to a Ukrainian friend, just my family's version of it). Boil up some beets, potatoes, carrots, pulling out each veggie type out of the water when you can sink a fork into it, then cool and dice no bigger than 1/2". Cut green beans about 1/2" also, boil till cooked but firm, and drain. For the peas, I cheat and use a can, drained. Mix them all together with some olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. I like it tossed with some mayo, as well, while my mom prefers it without.

By the way, the way to peel beets is by boiling them first. When they cool down a bit, you can pinch the skin right off.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sauteed Radishes

Beet greens are delicious, too! When your beets get overgrown and woody, the greens are still tender and yummy.

Alright I'm new to beets also and now with these recipes,I'm glad I grew them.My ? is when do you know they are ready in the garden...