Many people like to use radishes in their foods on a daily basis, and cutting them again and again every time you are about to cook is obviously a bit of a hassle. To avoid this issue, most people cut their radishes all at once and then keep them in the fridge.
However, your cut radishes are going to lose that crunchy texture after a while, and using them in your food preparation just isn’t going to be good enough. In fact, you might get really disappointed with how the radishes look, and think about replacing them altogether.
You need to understand that there are particular techniques that you can use to keep cut radishes, and even other vegetables, fresh. When a vegetable is cut, the inner part of the flesh is exposed and reacts with the elements in the air, and this causes it to go bad after a while.
Learning how to store cut vegetables can help you streamline your cooking in a variety of different ways. One of the things that you need to understand is how to properly blanch your vegetables. Blanching is one of the most important things that you should do before storing any kind of vegetable.
Blanching simply means to put the food in question in boiling water for a very small period of time, usually starting from 30 seconds and going all the way to 5 minutes.
Once they have been put in the boiling water, the next step is to move them to an ice bath (just use any bowl with water and lots of ice in it). After the vegetables have cooled down, you can use some paper towels to get rid of the excess moisture from the vegetables.
If you have fresh cut radishes, you need to make sure that you store them in the right way to keep them fresh. Here’s what you can do.
Refrigerate the Radishes
One of the best ways to store radishes, or any vegetable for that matter, is to refrigerate them properly.
When radishes are freshly cut, the amount of moisture content in them is quite high, and as a result of that, they are quite crisp. When you store them in the refrigerator, you need to make sure that the moisture levels of the radishes are maintained properly.
Ideally, you should wrap them in a moist paper towel or keep them in cold water and then close the container in the refrigerator. It’s important that you avoid using an airtight container for the radishes when storing them in the fridge.
Remember, putting them in the freezer is not a good idea; they don’t do well (it doesn’t matter if you keep them cut or uncut).
If you store them properly atcold temperatures, the radishes are going to remain pretty good and fresh anywhere between 10 and 14 days. You can always store them in a container with a bit of water, but that’s not the only way.
Here is a step-by-step guide to ensure that your radishes are stored in the best possible way in the refrigerator.
- You need to wash and blanch the radishes.
- You need to get rid of the small root that usually extends from the edible part of the radish.
- Use a Ziploc plastic bag. Start by using a damp paper towel and put a few radishes on top of the surface.
- Use another paper towel to cover the radishes.
- You can put multiple paper towels and create several layers of radishes, though just make sure that they do not come into contact with each other.
- Take a straw and use it to get rid of as much of the air inside the bag as you possibly can. You need to make sure that all of the air from the bag has been removed.
- Make sure you keep the bag in the vegetable drawer of the refrigerator. It’s going to keep the radishes fresh.
Freezing the Radishes
As mentioned, freezing the radishes isn’t a wise move, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t do it. Ideally, freezing is suitable for storing cut radishes, mainly because the water content in the roots is quite high.
It’s also because of that reason why the radishes might taste different once you take them out of the freezer and start cooking with them.
The texture changes because the water in the roots is frozen when it’s kept in the freezer. If you are going to store the radishes properly, you might want to follow the following steps:
- Wash them carefully with cold water.
- Cut off the tap root at the bottom and the greens at the top.
- Cut them into much smaller pieces that are suitable for freezing.
- Blanch the pieces that you have cut to ensure that they are able to maintain their flavor and their texture.
- Put them in ice-cold water, then drain the radishes as best as you can.
- Finally, put them in freezer bags and keep them in the freezer. If your freezer has a separate section for vegetables, put the bag there.
Keep Them in Water
This might come as a surprise, but you can easily keep the radishes fresh by storing them in water. They will remain crisp and fresh for up to seven days when stored in water. Take any plastic bowl and fill it up with water.
Put the roots inside so it seems as if they are growing out, and then place the water container with a loose cover in your pantry or any other place where they won’t be disturbed. It’s going to keep the radishes fresh for a week at least.
These are just some of the simplest and most direct ways of storing the cut radishes to keep them clean and fresh.
I have two Associate’s degrees, one in Medical Assisting and the other in Computer Technician, and I am roughly five classes from a bachelor’s degree. Though I never ended up working in the medical field, I have five and a half years of experience in IT. I recently became a stay-at-home mom to my two young boys, and I’m so excited to start this adventure with them! In my spare time, I love to bake and read pretty much anything I can get my hands on.