Relish the radish!

Radishes grow easily and prolifically, as anyone who has ever planted them can attest. I always end up with many more than I intended, and many more than my family could ever eat “plain” without becoming bored with them, so I have come up with a few recipes that enable me to use ALL of my garden’s yield. If you didn’t plant any radishes this year, go to the vegetable stand and “git sum” so you too can enjoy this versatile, affordable, and nutritious vegetable while it is at its peak.

 Red Relish - really!

• 3 large (or 6 small) green onions
• 1 medium turnip
• 1 average bunch of radishes
• 3 drops of red food coloring (optional)
• 1 cup white vinegar (240 ml)
• 1 cup Splenda™ Granular (240 ml)
• 1½ tsp. Carb Counters™ Thick It Up or scant 1 tsp. guar gum
• 1 Tb. black pepper (15 ml)
• 2 Tb. dry parsley (30 ml)

Mince white top portions of the green onions in a food processor, pulsing on and off until fine but not pureed. Scrape onions into a large bowl. Slice the green crisp portions thinly by hand and add to bowl. Peel turnip and chop into 8 pieces. Mince in food processor until fine and add to onions in bowl.  (If you have a few large pieces left but the rest looks good, stop. Remove the big portions and discard, then use the rest – you want a fine end result without hours of work, not mush!) Clean radishes (this is a great way to use up the "ugly" ones from the garden that are otherwise fine but which never seem to get eaten at my house). You guessed it! Mince and add to bowl. Measure vinegar, Splenda™, food coloring, thickener, parsley, and black pepper into processor and pulse briefly until mixed well and thickened slightly. Mix all ingredients well, and refrigerate.
Excellent with brats, hot dogs, burgers, or over salads or fish or almost anything! Fresh minced jalapeno or habanera peppers would be a great addition to this relish, if spicy is to your liking. Also good when made with all turnips and no radishes.

Yield approx. 2½ cups
Per 2 Tb: 11 cal, 0.1 g fat (0 g sat.), 2 g carb (1 g fiber)

Copyright 2000, excerpted from Cooking TLC Volume 1

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