You can eat radish leaves: They have a strong taste and are suitable for many different dishes. We give you an overview of how you can use radish greens in the kitchen.
Radish leaves often end up in the kitchen waste, but they can be used in many ways when cooking and are even healthy: like radishes themselves, they mainly contain mustard oils, which can help the body fight off bacteria and viruses. They also promote digestion.
The taste of radish leaves is strong and spicy. They can complement dishes, but also provide the main aroma. In this article we summarize what you should pay attention to if you want to eat radish leaves and in which dishes they are best used.
Eating radish leaves: You have to pay attention to this
In order for you to eat radish leaves, they should be as fresh and intact as possible. When shopping, make sure you choose a bunch of radishes with as few wilted or broken leaves as possible. Then use the green as quickly as possible. This is especially important if you want to eat the radish leaves raw, for example in the form of a salad. Then use leaves that are as young and crisp as possible. But even for recipes in which you have to puree the leaves, they should still be green and firm – wilted radish leaves have already lost a lot of their taste.
Before you process radish leaves, you should therefore first sort them. Discard wilted, yellow, or rotten specimens. Collect the fresh and green leaves in a sieve and then rinse them thoroughly under running water.
Tip: Vegetables from conventional cultivation are usually treated with chemical-synthetic pesticides, residues of which can still be found on the finished product. If you cook with radish leaves, be sure to use organic quality or use vegetables from your own garden. In our guide we will show you how easy it is to plant, care for and harvest radishes.
Eat radish leaves: raw in salads, in smoothies or as pesto
When the radish leaves are young and fresh, they taste particularly good raw. You can use them, for example, as an addition to a green salad or a wild herb salad. With their spicy taste, they are an interesting addition to other leaf salads. But you can also prepare a pure radish leaf salad. An unobtrusive dressing like a simple vinaigrette goes best with this, so that the natural flavor of the leaves is not lost.
By the way: The slight hairiness of the radish leaves can feel unusual when you eat them. If this bothers you a lot, you can make sure to use the smaller leaves for salads: they are the youngest and not as hairy.
You can also use raw radish leaves in a green smoothie instead of in a salad. However, you should also add other ingredients here so that the flavor of the leaves does not take over.
Another tasty way to use up the greens is radish leaf pesto. You can simply use our basic recipe for pesto as a guide: Make pesto yourself: Healthy recipe with simple ingredients. Use about 100 grams of radish leaves for a jar of pesto.
Eat radish leaves warm: A good substitute for spinach
You can use radish leaves in the warm kitchen in a similar way to spinach. The easiest option is to sauté them in a little oil and diced onion and garlic, if you like, until they wilt. You can get suggestions here: Cooking spinach: this is how it works. You can also prepare the radish leaves like creamed spinach or use them instead of spinach in other dishes – for example in spaghetti with spinach or a vegetarian casserole.
In addition, radish leaves are good to eat in the form of soups: you can mix smaller amounts with vegetable soups, for example. If you want to emphasize the flavor more, you can also try a radish leaf soup with few other ingredients:
To do this, sauté a bunch of radish leaves with a chopped onion in a little oil, add two chopped potatoes and pour a liter of vegetable stock over the whole thing.
Let the soup simmer for about 20 minutes, then puree and season to taste.
If you like, you can top it off with some cream or a plant-based cream substitute.
Eat radish leaves as a snack
You can also eat radish leaves in the form of vegetable chips. Just follow our basic recipe: Make your own vegetable chips – this is how it works. A delicious herb quark goes well with this as a dip – if you like, you can add chopped raw radish leaves to it.
