Cream Of Radish Leaf Soup and Homemade Farm Cheese
My frugal peasant instincts won’t let me throw out (OK, compost) perfectly good to eat radish leaves. Of course, there is somebody in the house (who shall rename nameless) who does not think that radish leaves are perfectly good to eat.
I still, sometime, manage to sneak them in soup and stir fries, when the leaves are young. There are a lot more difficult to sneak in if the leaves are mature, because they can be… mmm… fibrous.
But I like cream of radish leaf soup. It tastes good, it’s thrifty. And it’s nutritious: lots of Vitamin A, B1, B2, C & Iron. Bottom line: Don’t discard the leaves, that’d be a waste. If the leaves are stringy, pass the puréed soup through a fine-meshed sieve (or a “chinois” if you’ve got one of those) to ensure it’s smooth.
Cream of Radish Leaf Soup is a recipe I submitted to Flavor Magazine for the Seasonal Table of their April 2009 issue, along with Radish Tartines and Homemade Fresh Farm Cheese. Scroll to page 2 for my recipes. But they are other nifty recipes there that I encourage you to look at, including Caramelized Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake with Strawberries & Whipped Cream from Heidi Morf of Twenty Four Crow (Heidi used to own Four & Twenty Blackbirds) , Morel Mushroom Risotto with Rosemary Cream and Chive Oil from David Scales of the Inn at Meander Plantation - a recipe I really should try if more morels deign to be hunted this year… and a few other early spring recipes. I am in good company.
Pictures? How about farm cheese in the making?
I did try to make home made ricotta lately with fresh organic milk. I didn’t know I could use the whey… Thanks for that !
[...] original post here: Rappahannock Cook & Kitchen Gardener » Cream Of Radish Leaf Soup … Tags: cookery, fnccm-v1-swf, food-discovery, homemade-farm, kitchen, local, locavore-log, nature, [...]
[...] One of my friends asked if radish leaves were edible and I figured that they weren’t, but Rappahannock Cook & Kitchen is making cream of radish leaf soup! [...]
Now there’s something I hadn’t thought of: soup. I’m with you on the radish leaves and had used young leaves in salad, only to have them rejected by the rest of the family on textural grounds. Will ponder the soup…
Hi Sylvie. Great idea for how to use radish leaves and get around their tendency to become fibrous! I took a look at Flavor magazine…wow, looks like a great mag, and you’re in fine company in the recipe section.
Just yesterday, I trimmed the greens off a bunch of radishes I got from my CSA and stuck them in the refrigerator thinking I should do something with them. I thought I’d most likely toss them into a pot for some veg broth, but I’ll have to consider your soup now too!
No help on the radishes here. We’ve basically stopped growing them because aside from a few with salt and butter we just don’t eat them much. I wonder if cows like radishes. . .
I am interested in the cheese. What kind of cheese are you making, and what do you use to make the milk coagulate? And how do you use the cheese? I love to make paneer and fry it. It’s like an African Fulani cheese, so must be generally traditional.
Hey Jennifer, the pictures illustrate what I call farm cheese (the recipe is included in the Flavor mag recipe). I use lemon. Something similar can be done using vinegar, lime, citric acid etc. Many cultures around the world have a similar low-tech easy way to make farm cheese such as ricotta, paneer, queso fresco, yogurt cheese etc. They are all a little different but very similar. Are you getting milk from your cow now?
[...] greens as intended is another question. I’m trying to take inspiration from Sylvie’s Cream of Radish Leaf Soup, but I’m making no [...]
No milk yet. We’re having technical problems. . .with cow pregnancy. More than you wanted to know. . . LOL
Jennifer - more than I want to know? really?
Sounds like it’s time for another garden visit… smile… hint hint…
I love the idea of radish leaf soup! The farm cheese reminds me of homemade Indian paneer
[...] is somebody in the house who’s not so fond of radishes, especially radish leaf soup or stir-fried radish pods, but I’ve just hit the [...]