Ugh! Why Do My Homegrown Radishes Taste Starchy?

Radishes fresh from your garden taste ten times better than the ones you can buy from the grocery store. So crisp and so, so crunchy.

Unless, that is, you leave them in the ground too long.

Once a radish has started to bolt and go to seed, it sends all its energy to seed production and gets really starchy. Take it from me that a starchy radish is a far cry from a crispy, slightly spicy one.

There's a window of opportunity for harvesting radishes, and you really want to avoid leaving these little roots in the ground too long.

A couple seasons ago, I wanted to take pictures of my French breakfast radish harvest for my second book. I kept putting off the harvest for the perfect moment when the weather was good and I would have a few minutes to myself between meetings and pickups to use my fancy camera. When I finally pulled the radishes up, their roots had grown too large. They'd lost most of their color and turned fibrous and bitter.

All that wait for something I couldn't enjoy.

So, do as I say and not as I did. Pick your radishes as soon as they show signs that they’re big enough to eat.

If you're just getting started growing radishes, check out my post on how to tell when to harvest perfect radishes. I read the time to harvest on the seed packets and set myself a reminder on my phone so that I don't forget to check on them during the window of days surrounding the recommendation.

Unfortunately, my tips won't help you very much if your radishes have already been in the ground way too long. If you happen to let your radishes go a little too long, never fear. There are still three ways to salvage them so that your radishes don't end up in the trash like mine.

Roast Your Radishes

If your harvested radishes are past their peak or sub-optimal in flavor, roasting them is a great alternative to eating them raw.

Toss them with olive oil and some salt and pepper, and roast them just like you would baby new potatoes. Radishes roasted actually become sweeter and pretty tasty since the cooking process breaks down some of that starch.

Pickle Your Radishes

Chop up your radishes, put them in a jar, and add some vinegar and spices according to your favorite pickling recipe. Pickled radishes are great to create lots of flavor and crunchiness. They'll be perfect for topping a summer salad!

If your radishes aren't too far gone, you can follow this easy quick pickled radish recipe, which is really more like marinating your radishes. You'll toss your sliced radishes into a jar and add a mixture of 1/2 cup red wine vinegar, 1/2 cup water, 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, and 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar, all whisked together. Refrigerate at least 15 minutes before enjoying and then store in the fridge (these aren't true canned veggies).

Enjoy the Radish Leaves

Here's something most people don't realize because they buy their radishes from the grocery store either without the leaves attached or with leaves that look less-than-appetizing: The entire radish plant is edible.

That means if the root no longer holds any appeal, you can still eat the greens. Enjoy them raw in a salad, sauté them, or toss them in a stir fry.

I like to wilt the greens with some balsamic vinegar, similar to Martha Stewart's recipe for wilted arugula. Radishes and arugula are in the same plant family, so it makes sense that you can cook these greens the same way. (You might even notice similarities in shape between arugula leaves and radish leaves.)

Bonus Option: Save Your Own Radish Seeds

One final option if you've left your radishes in the ground for too long is to actually leave them in the garden longer and let them go to seed. Learn how to harvest radish seeds for next season.

So there you go! Whether you prefer your radishes pickled or roasted, you've now got a couple of options for salvaging your radishes when they're no longer the best but you still want to eat them!

Thanks for making gardening ordinary again!