A Radish is Nothing Like a Beet

“Darling – you look radishing!” ~ Unknown

Let’s talk about radishes. The radish is a highly under-rated root vegetable. I was excited when Erin from The Urban Vegetable Garden Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program suggested that the radish be my “CSA Challenge” this week.

Health Benefits of Radishes: Radishes are a low-calorie vegetable that is mostly composed of dietary fiber. A serving of radishes is about 1/2 cup and contains 2 grams of carbohydrates (no fat and no protein). Radishes are high in Vitamin C – with one serving providing 14% of your daily needs. In addition, they are high in Vitamins K, B6, niacin, folate and pantothenic acid.

Radish Chocolate Cake Recipe:  I am going to start out this story by telling you it has been a long week and I have been under a lot of stress lately. This might not totally excuse my actions but it is what I am going with… (swallow). I typically get my CSA boxes on Wednesdays. So Thursday morning I was watching Jim Hensen’s Word Party on Netflix with my toddler.

This is a new show for the small child – where he gets to pretend to be the “big kid” and teach the “babies” all kinds of new words. There are many, many repetitive songs that get stuck in your head with this one. Sometimes I wonder if government agencies use toddler shows as torture devices..

So I am watching Word Party and I start googling recipes I can use to turn into my CSA challenge recipe. I thought it might be fun to turn it into some type of dessert and I find this very cool looking chocolate cake recipe on the Martha Stewart website. Small child and I went out for our regular errands and picked up the ingredients. I was excited to make my recipe.

Nap time is when the day started to fall apart. Or should I say lack of nap time. If you have ever had a toddler – you know a no-nap toddler is not a pleasant toddler. When you couple that with a stressed out mom trying to make phone calls and two crazy dogs – you have a recipe for disaster. So finally when the small child started to settle down and watch one of his shows, I started to make my recipe. I peeled and boiled the radishes and started to combine the ingredients to make the cake. I was so proud of myself that I even texted Erin about what I was doing.

So a few adjustments later and a Radish Chocolate Cake was born…

Ingredients:

• 4 medium radishes (peeled)
• 2 cups sugar
• 1.5 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups of all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup of water
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• Martha Stewart chocolate glaze 

Directions

1. Boil whole radishes until tender – approximately 20 minutes.
2. Drain and puree radishes in a food processor
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
4. Mix together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl
5. Slowly add in eggs, water, oil, vanilla and pureed radishes
6. Coat a 9 inch round cake pan with cooking spray and add parchment paper to the bottom of the pan.
7. Pour batter into pan and bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean
8. Let cake cool in pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes
9. Turn cake from plan and let cool completely – right side up
10. Add chocolate glaze and decorate as wanted once cake is totally cool

Enjoy!

Happy planting and eating!

~ The Gardening Dietitian