Radishes are the first vegetable I ever fermented (I’m pretty sure) and they are also a classic that I try to keep on hand because they are infinitely gobble-able. I CANNOT get enough of that flavor. It’s seductive and it is the flavor I’m thinking of when I get cravings for fermented vegetables. They have a strong smell while fermenting, so be aware of that, but unlike the pungency of say, broccoli or cauliflower ferments, I don’t find this smell to be off-putting; it actually makes me drool a little.
I recommend starting your fermentation adventure with radishes because radishes just love to be fermented. I think it’s difficult to get them wrong, and that the end result is so transformed and delightful, they’ll get you hooked right into a lifetime fermentation habit! (Always my evil plan, of course.) The exception? If you hate radishes, maybe give something else a try first. But for anyone who likes them, I feel comfortable telling you that you won’t be disappointed.
I ferment radishes of all kinds, and they all ferment gorgeously. It doesn’t matter if they’re fall Asian radishes, French radishes in the spring, or the beautiful cherry-tinted globes I can get almost all year long. They all love to be fermented, and reward they reward their fermenter with an effortless, versatile treat.
I like to do them as slices so I have lots of options on how to use them once they’re pickled. I toss them into salads, top cold summer soups with them, savor them plain, use them as veggie crackers for amuses-bouches, put them on cheese boards or spread them with a little cultured butter for a très Paleo/WAPF snack. The possibilities are endless if you need a little bit of flavor!
Lactofermented Radishes
Yields one pint of sliced radish pickles
Ingredients
- 8 oz. (230 g), 2 small bunches round radish bulbs
- 3/4 teaspoon (5.75 g) coarse salt
- 1/2 cup (120 g) filtered water
How-To
- Wash the radishes and cut out any soft or unsightly parts. Do not peel. Trim the ends.
- Slice the radishes into 1/4 inch (1 cm) rounds. Place them in a widemouthed pint jar.
- Mix salt into room temperature water until dissolved. If you’re using a mineral-rich rock salt, all of the solids may not dissolve and that’s okay.
- Pour brine over the radishes, leaving a 1/2 inch or more of headspace. Place a weight in the jar, or use a smaller jar full of water to keep your radishes submerged. You may want to place the weight in the jar over the sink to ensure that an excess brine doesn’t overflow. Make sure that there is a thin layer of water over the top of the radishes, and that there is a little space between the water level and the rim of the jar. If your jar is too full, time to munch a couple raw radish slices to bring it back down to normal.
- If your selected weight fits in the jar, place the jar lid on top, and secure but don’t tighten it. You want to leave room for the carbonation to escape. If the weight you’re using rises above the rim of the jar, use a clean kitchen cloth secured to the jar with a rubber band to cover.
- Allow your jar to sit at room temperature for 6 days. Take a taste. If the pickles don’t seem sour enough, re-cover the jar and let them sit for a few more days or as long as 2 weeks total. Once they’re to your liking, remove the weight, secure the jar lid and place the jar in the refrigerator. Enjoy your radish pickles plain or as suggested above!
Want more radish ferments?
Try Banh Mi Pickles
or
Tracy Boudrie says
Absolutely spot on. Radishes ARE just that easy, are delicious, and definitely DO get you hooked on fermenting and fermented foods. One of my first ferments as well. I did one quart with no added spices, and to the other I added dill and pickling spice. Both were unique and flavorful.
Tim says
Thank you for sharing your pickling knowledge, experiences and recipes. Have you ever pickled radish seed pods? I’ve never lactofermented them but have done a vinegar canning pickle using long pepper, Piper longum, for the spicing. After letting the jars sit for about 3 months, the flavors blended and they are fantastic! I based my ‘recipe’ from the one posted on the blog, Food History Jottings.
Amanda says
Hi Tim,
Thank you! I haven’t pickled radish seed pods, but I bet they would ferment quite nicely. I would test them out by tasting at maybe 5 days to make sure they aren’t getting mushy. Other pods that I’ve fermented have been stunners, but they are a bit more prone to mold (not sure if this would apply to the radish pods) so be sure to keep them well submerged and well-fitted to the jar you use (not too few and not too many, in other words.
Please do let me know how they work out! I don’t currently have any pods sprouting, so I’m betting I won’t get them before the first frost, sadly!
Tim says
My radishes bolted back in May and June and are long done. So, it won’t be till next year I’d get a chance at lactofermenting them. The pods need to be harvested when small and tender. After they get plump, they are too tough to chew any way they are prepared. You are right that one needs to be sure to weight them down as they are hollow and will float. Radish seed pods are one of those crops that one can really only acquire straight out of one’s own garden as they are a bit too ephemeral for marketing as fresh produce. IME, they wilt and get rubbery in a day. But, to make them last, pickle ’em straight off the plant! I often tell people that you don’t sit down to eat a bowl of these. Rather, its better to treat them as a flavor packed garnish and just nibble on a few at a time particularly when eating something bland and dry.
sa says
There’s a variety of radish bred specifically for its pods, check it out. http://www.rareseeds.com/rat-s-tail-rad/
mike says
I pickled the Rat tail radishes this year, 4 days in the sun. Came out really nice, but spice tapered off more than I would like.
Chad Lassin says
Hello Amanda, thank you for such a great website and recipes! I am fairly new to brine pickling and I did a large batch of radishes at the end of fall, everything seemed to go well however after the two weeks, they were very sour but also the smell is a little to funky, not sure why it has not gone away even after a lot of time in the fridge. I did not follow one of your recipes but one I found on the perfect pickler website. I figured I would try reaching out to you for your expertise. Again my brine looks great, real clear, veggies are crisp and sour but like I said the smell is very funky and hard to get passed. I used a combination of radishes sliced half moon, watermelon, winter, and regular. Thank you very much!
Amanda says
Hi Chad,
I’ll be frank: people who are new to fermented pickles sometimes find the aroma a little…intense. If it doesn’t smell seriously off (smells to watch out for include swiss cheese and very rotten eggs. DON’T eat pickles that smell like those things), I would take a little nibble.
You may also want to make a one-time-only grocery store (or better, yet, a purchase from a small, local fermentation business) so you can see what they’re “supposed to” smell like. Look for the Wild Brine brand, or another love pickle from the refrigerator case. The smell won’t be exactly the same as the smell of your pickles at home, but it will give you an idea of some of the funkiness that can occur in fermented vegetables.
The one thing that gives me a little pause is that you say the brine is clear. Fermented pickles generally have cloudy brine, but if they smell sour, my best guess would be that they fermented properly. I can’t tell you for sure without seeing them, but if you followed the rules, I would say take a small bite. If you like the taste, it might be just a matter of letting yourself grow accustomed to the smell.
I hope that helps!
Amanda
marl says
I’m fairly new to fermentation myself, and realize this reply is late. But after reading this i suspected perhaps you added to much salt and they didn’t ferment properly. That is why the brine is clear and not cloudy like it should be, Basically salt kills and or inhibits the growth of bacteria with too much salt the good bacteria present will not be able to survive.
Amanda says
Hi Marl,
You would have to use A LOT of salt to prevent fermentation from happening. Too much salt will slow fermentation, but unless you’re making it totally inedible (with too much salt), you’re unlikely to totally inhibit fermentation.
Alex says
Hi Amanda,
I recently discovered your blog and I love it. Thanks so much for the wisdom you share. I pickled my first harvest of cherry globe radishes from the garden, they are delicious. Just curious – mine turned pink as well as the water they are fermenting in, but the pics of yours they seem to have remained white on the inside and red on the outside. Is there an explanation that you’re aware of? Also, I used tap water (where I live in northern Canada we are blessed to have flouride-free tap water) – do you strongly recommend using mineral water? One final question, I have a few varieties of mineral salts, including the pink, white, grey, and also fine and course – do you recommend any in particular?
With gratitude,
Alex
anisa says
Hi Amanda,
Great site! I’ve recently moved to the tropics (West Africa) and am desperate to get some fermented pickled veggies. I came upon your site and you’ve inspired me to do it myself! The challenge, as you may have guessed, is ambient temperature. These days it’s in the 80s. What would be your suggestion for me? I was thinking of taking a cart from room to room as I moved around the apartment and switched on and off different air conditioners…:p Do I have another choice?
Also, other sites suggest releasing the air building up in the jar once a day, whereas it seems you don’t? Also, with the ghetto jar method it seems the air escapes on its own? What’s the difference in outcome between covering with a cloth versus a normal cap?
Thank you!
anisa
Amanda says
Hey Anisa,
I’m so jealous! I’ve been wanting to spend some time in Senegal since I was a teenager. Still haven’t made it!
Depending on how high in the 80s we’re talking, you may be okay. You’ll want to cut the fermentation times in all of my recipes (or at least start checking them for sourness/texture around day 4). If you like salty things, also raise the salt levels. That will help keeps things crisp and also help prevent the surface issues (yeasts, and yes, sometimes mold) that will be much more likely in hot temperatures.
There are other things that I don’t usually recommend that might be options (or might not be, depending on availability) in your case. The first is to use some type of airlock system, such as a kraut source, reCAP and airlock, Pickl-it or something along those lines. Yeast issues are quite rare in less-tropical climes, but the heat does favor yeast, so an airlock system can help in those cases. Keep in mind that surface yeasts aren’t harmful, but depending on your funk tolerance and your visual sensitivity, they can be unpleasant.
Carting them from room to room does sound a little labor-intensive, but it might be a good way to go if things seem like they’re getting mushy/yeasty/slimy.
I also met someone from Puerto Rico recently who mixes a little liquid grapefruit seed extract (like 2 drops) into her brine to stop yeast from forming when things get really hot. I don’t have any particular experience with that, but it might be an avenue for you to check out.
Finally, I don’t crack my jars because I never seal them so much that the CO2 can build up. I either leave a weight inside the jar, and then close, but don’t fully tighten the lid, or, I use the jar in jar method, both of which keep a brine layer at the top (preventing surface yeasts in most cases) and allow CO2 to freely escape.
I hope that helps! I wish you all the luck in the world. Please let us know how it goes. This is definitely an interesting topic to explore!
Brian says
Amanda,
You have a great website. Thank you. I am fermenting my very first batch of radishes now. I can’t wait to see how they taste. Have you ever canned the fermented results so they can be enjoyed for a long time? Does that even make sense?
Amanda says
Hi Brian,
Thanks so much! Some people do can ferments (with a caveat!). The Amish population here in Pennsylvania is known for canning sauerkraut, so i know folks do it. The things to keep in mind are:
1) You will kill the probiotic bacteria, so if you’re doing this for the health aspect, canning isn’t a good idea.
2) The flavor and texture will be impacted.
3) You need to be extremely careful about only canning products that have reached a safe pH, and you’ll need to consult an expert canning resource (Food in Jars is an excellent canning site) to do this safely. Unlike the fermentation process, which naturally (and always, 100% of the time) prevents the botulism toxin from sporulating in vegetables, canning creates conditions ideal for the toxin if you do not ensure the proper acidity. You’ll want to carefully review canning safety practices, and that’s something I don’t have the proper expertise to advise you on.
Lastly, fermentation is a preservation process. So although you can’t keep them at room temperature for years with no change, you can store them in the fridge for months or enjoy them at room temperature, and notice and enjoy they changes they go through over the weeks (or longer) that they’re there.
I hope you enjoy the radishes!
Jen Tompkins says
I’m using a vacuum-sealer to preserve my ferments- so far just garlic, but I plan to try all kinds. I have a widemouth jar attachment that consistently produces a nice seal, and also a small-mouth one that almost never works and I have given up on it (Foodsaver products).
I don’t know the effect of vacuum sealing on the probiotic content but I am hoping it will be maintained while allowing me to stop the fermentation at the most optimal stage for my taste.
Chris says
I’ve been vacuum sealing jars of sauerkraut and fermented cucumbers for a couple years now with good results. I fermented them in my crock and then transferred them over to quart and half gallon mason jars after to vacuum seal and store in the fridge. I just opened a partial jar of craut that was around 8+ months old a few days ago and it was still delicious, plus nobody got the shits so that’s a plus! I use my vacuum seal for long term refrigerator storage of many things I would have had to previously throw out.
Kim says
I really need to know the ratio of Himalayan salt to water to make the brine. I ALWAYS seem to make it too salty. i have one friend who is benefiting from all my trials as he really really likes salt, but for me, as I LOVE radishes, I would like to get a slightly less salty brine but still be safe. I have tried some really different spices so far. Cloves in the Jicama didn’t work as well as I had hoped and Cinnamon is not a good one to use with veggies. But I really need to get my brine right. can you advise?
Sandy says
I have been fermenting for a few months now and love it! Radishes and sauerkraut are my favorite so far. Do you have any concerns about the consumption of so much salt? Is there a way to limit the salt for fermentation? I have noticed my blood pressure has gone up a notch since eating the ferments. I also drink a glass of water kefir everyday and love that! So much to learn :)!
Amanda says
Hi Sandy,
Great question! You can lower or even eliminate the salt in your fermented vegetables unless you’re producing them commercially. There modern and ancient traditions for salt-free vegetable ferments, but in general, using salt is better for many reasons. (It’s not really a quick topic, though; I wrote a whole chapter on the topic of salt-free veg fermentation in my book. ).
If you’re going to avoid using salt, you may not love the results quite as much (they will be softer and not as delicious, in general) and you should consider purchasing and using pH strips to ensure safety.
I don’t have a blood pressure problem, so the salt content isn’t an issue for me. I am not a doctor or nutritionist, but I’ve read quite a few articles that suggest balancing sodium and potassium (so eating higher potassium foods if you know you’re going to be consuming more salt than usual) and drinking more water are both solutions to mitigate the effect of salt on your system. There are interesting articles and studies on this topic, and I think it’s definitely worth googling and reading the studies for yourself to make the best decisions!
But basically, yes, cutting the salt is okay, but use as much as you can without negatively impacting your blood pressure.
Happy fermenting and searching!
Kathy says
I have let my fermenting radishes sit on my counter weighted and covered with a kitchen cloth for 11 days. Is it normal for them to lose most of their color and for there to be a slight whitish/milky sediment at the bottom of the jar? They smell fine. I have covered them and put them in the fridge.
Amanda says
Yup, it’s all normal! Here’s a post about the white stuff if you’re curious.
Kathy says
Thank you!
Denise says
Hello! I’m fermenting for my first time with Kraut Source + Mason jar. It’s a carrot, French breakfast radish, apple combination. I started it Wednesday night (today is Saturday) and have opened it a few times to examine and smell. I read somewhere to leave it open for a while if it smells bad and it should take care of itself (smell better). So…I’m wondering if 1) I’ve messed things up by opening it and “airing it out” about three times already. 2) What I thought smelled bad is actually normal. Thoughts? Can I just carry on? Or has my airing messed things up an I should compost and begin again. Thank you!
Amanda says
Hi Denise,
Generally I don’t recommend opening your jar unless you need to (notice something undesirable happening in there, etc). Every time you open it, you’re making it possible for mold or yeast spores to hit the surface of your ferment. That’s not a problem in and of itself, but it can cause unsightly Kahm yeasts to colonize your ferment. I generally recommend smelling after fermentation before refrigeration. Keeping vegetables submerged throughout fermentation is a very, very helpful thing to do for optimal veg ferments.
If you haven’t fermented vegetables before and this smells bad, it could be possible that you’re just not a big fan of the smell of ferments. Some of that will dissipate in the fridge.
If you have fermented before and this smells off, I would trust your nose. Generally speaking, I think your nose is the best tool you have to evaluate fermented vegetables.
One note: adding lots of fruit to a veg ferment can be problematic. Too much sugar in the mix can mess up the microbial balance, so if you do find yourself with a lot of Kahm yeast or mold on a batch, that apple could also be contributing to the issue.
david kelley says
can you put dill in the raddish and let it frement with dill? i want a dill raddish
Amanda says
Yup! Enjoy!
Jeffrey says
Sorry, I can’t find anyplace more appropriate on this site to post this question.
I just started reading “Ferment Your Vegetables” . I have made several batches of kimchi from other recipes. They all stress that the kimchi needs to remain submerged while fermenting.
Your “Everyday Baichu Kimchi” recipe seems to use all the water for soaking the napa cabbage, which is then drained off. There is no mention of any liquid in the jar or keeping the cabbage submerged while fermenting.
Am I reading this right: just pack the napa cabbage in the jar, put a weight on, and ferment? no liquid/submersion required?
Amanda says
Hi Jeffrey,
Yes, that’s correct. The paste and the residual salt will ensure that there is naturally MORE than enough liquid present in the recipe!
Amanda