In France, 50 different varieties are grown.
And we harvest nearly 50,000 tons a year, mainly in the Pays de la Loire. There are 3 main kinds, the black radish, the first radish consumed by man, which must be peeled and which is tough, the small radishes, red, white, two-tone, the most consumed, and the Japanese radish, named ” daikon” so huge that it is sometimes confused with a turnip. It can exceed one kg.
Consumed since prehistoric times
On the historical side, it is believed that prehistoric men ate the leaves. 3000 years before Jesus Christ it is cultivated in the gardens of Persia, Greece where it is the plant of Apollo the god of beauty. The Egyptians love radishes, so much so that, according to the Greek historian Herodotus, the workers who made the pyramid of Cheops were paid with radishes
In the kitchen
The black radish is delicious in soup, the pink radish can be eaten in a salad, or with a chicken cutlet. It can also be made into a delicious mousse by mixing it with beets. That said, it is never as good as raw. The fleshy part that we eat is the “hypocotyl” if you want to show off at work, but don’t forget that radishes can be eaten, even the leaves, in salads or especially in soups. Cooking is done with a lot of ingredients like radishes, but it is mostly done with the heart