I've never been one for radishes. My mom can eat them like apples. Even after falling in love with this salad, I still don't think I could just take a bite out of one like she does, but it has certainly lifted some of my previous thoughts about radishes like "I hate radishes". I first had this salad at my friend Steph's house. She had made it for our dinner and I'll admit I was a little skeptical about the radishes in it, but everything else sounded good so I thought I might as well give it a shot. It was amazing.
I'm currently visiting my parents in Mexico and was raving about the salad when I saw radishes in the house, so I made it for dinner last night. A hit both with my radish-loving mom and my "not too sure about radishes" dad. He went back for seconds and even took some for lunch today! My mom things the key to this is the dressing, which I agree is delicious, but I also think it is how everything comes together.
Ingredients:
1/2 large cucumber, thinly sliced
4-5 radishes, thinly sliced
1 lemon, zest and juice
1/2 cup of feta
2 tbs white wine vinegar
1 tbs finely chopped fresh dill, plus more for garnish
1/2 tsp sugar
1 garlic clove
salt and pepper
1/4 cup plus 1 tbs olive oil
Put sliced cucumber, radishes, feta and lemon zest into your serving bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together lemon juice, white wine vinegar, dill, sugar and garlic. (Original recipe says to crush garlic with the back of the knife (while leaving it relatively in tact) and removing it from the dressing before serving. I love garlic and Steph didn't answer my text fast enough so I chopped up the garlic and left it in.) Season with a pinch of salt and pepper. Whisk in the olive oil until the dressing is well mixed.
It could have been the timing when Steph made it for me, but the dressing and salad were made ahead of the rest of our meal and we put the salad (without dressing) covered back into the fridge until we were ready to eat. I did the same when I made this last night. Just before we were ready to sit down, I removed the salad from the fridge, added some more fresh dill on top and then the dressing.
The amount of cucumber/radish listed above fed about 3-4 people. I had extra dressing, which I covered up and refrigerated and then used again today with the second half of the cucumber and more radishes.
Original recipe from Martha Stewart.
