Radish top soup

Easter Basket radishes from my garden

When the growing season comes upon us, radishes are one of the earliest spring crops. This fast-growing garden friend comes in a variety of colors and shapes, and with a little culinary creativity they can be used for much more than just a salad garnish!

A couple years ago I came upon a basic recipe for radish top soup. It only took making it one time to know I had found my favorite use for radish tops. The addition of herbs de provence and a little salt took this basic cream soup to the moon when it comes to complimentary flavors. I made it again last night for the first time this season, and as always it was a hit even with the kiddos.

I picked these radishes on Thursday, but waited until Monday to make my radish top soup.

So the first step is harvesting a bunch of your radishes! Maybe you are going to make salad, or maybe you are into lacto-fermentation like me and you are planning to ferment some (the post for that will be up later this week once the process is finished!). Now you have a bunch of radish tops that can be put to a much better use than composting, feeding the chickens, or cooking like regular greens. Don't worry, you don't have to use them the same day you pick them. Just rinse them in clean water, wrap them in a dry paper towel, and put them in a container or ziplock bag in the fridge until you are ready for them.

Here's the ingredients:

• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 medium potatoes, sliced/chopped
• 4 cups raw radish tops (I really don't measure these, just a big bunch of them)
• 4 cups broth (I used chicken but I would imagine vegetable broth would be great too)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon herbs de provence
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 5 radishes, sliced

Put your butter and onion in a stock pot and saute them over med-low heat until they are nice and tender.

While the onion is cooking, cut up your potatoes and radish tops.

Mix in the potatoes and radish tops and stir it up. Then let it cook for 2-3 minutes.

Add your broth and mix it up. At this stage you want to raise the heat to medium and bring it to a boil. Then lower the temperature back to med-low and allow the mixture to simmer for about 30 minutes. I don't put a lid on it but you can if you like. Make sure to stir it every now and then!

Now everything is nice and tender. Turn the heat off and add the salt and herbs de provence. Then use either a heavy duty hand blender or you can do like me and pour it in a regular blender. Blend it into a creamy consistency.

Once you have blended the soup, the final step is to add the cream.

Radish top soup looks very similar to cream of broccoli soup. Add your radish garnishes and be prepared to have your taste buds tantalized!

Thanks for reading! Check back later this week for the lacto-ermented radishes. If you like pickled foods you will love them. If you have any creative radish recipes of your own, leave them in the comments!