Radishes are an excellent addition to your diet plan. They contribute greatly to good health and have quite some presence in history. These crunchy delights are packed with calcium, potassium, vitamin C, fiber, and folic acid. Each of the nutrients it contains makes it worthy of our attention. Apart from being eaten on its own, you can also combine radishes with other ingredients to make a delicious meal.
However, radishes have a limited amount of time that they can last when kept at room temperature. If you have a large amount of radishes at home (whatever the reason may be), you’ll need to preserve them so that they don’t spoil. There are a couple of methods that can be used to preserve radishes, and you might be wondering if freezing is one of them.
Can you freeze radishes? Yes, you can freeze radishes. Freezing them will give you up to 6 months of preserved quality. If you aren’t looking for long-term preservation, you may put the radishes in a fridge – this gives you about 2 weeks of preservation.
Interestingly, you can also preserve radishes by burying them in the dirt – we’ll talk more about this later in the article. Without freezing, refrigeration, or burying in the ground, your radishes can only last a maximum of 3 days.
There are proper steps to follow when you want to preserve your radishes through freezing. Although, you should know that the crunchy texture of radishes will inevitably diminish after spending some time in the freezer. To enjoy radishes in the crunchiest form, it’s best to eat them early into the freezing process.
Freezing Radishes
As we have previously established, it is possible to preserve radishes through freezing. However, you need to follow the right steps if you want the best results. If you’ll be using the radishes real soon, you may just leave them to keep at room temperature – this will give you about 3 days before the radishes go bad. Refrigeration also gives you about one week of preservation before the radishes become spoilt.
Regardless of all these other alternatives to preserving radishes for a long period of time, freezing is the absolute best; although it doesn’t give the best quality. If you intend to make fresh salads with your radishes, it is best to use the radishes immediately when they’re still fresh. Freezing is more of a suitable option if you’re planning to cook with the radishes later on.
How to Freeze Radishes
It is important that you follow the right steps when you’re freezing radishes. Freezing them incorrectly will cause the radishes to lose their original taste and texture pretty fast.
Although the texture will definitely change eventually, you can still slow the rate of change through correct freezing. Here are some easy steps to follow when you want to freeze your radishes:
- First start with cleaning the dirt off the radishes. It won’t make sense to place dirty radishes directly in the freezer. Doing so will mess up the freezer and give you more work to do later on. If you bought your radishes from the grocery store they might not be as dirty as when you’ve plucked them from your backyard. You can use cold water to wash the dirt off. Put the radishes under a running tap and wash till they’re clean enough.
- Now that the radishes are clean, proceed to trim its root ending and the stems. Note that you’re not to peel off the skin of the radishes. Simply trim it to make it neater. Once the radishes are placed in the freezer, you’ll be counting on their skin to serve as extra protection.
- Instead of freezing the whole radish, it is best to cut it down to smaller sizes. You may divide in half or cut down to about four pieces. The reason for cutting them down to smaller sizes is that freezing them in whole causes the skin to crack.
- The next step is to blanch the radishes. What does this mean? To blanch the radishes, place them in a bowl of boiling water for about 4 minutes. The point of blanching radishes is to reduce the rate at which they get ripe. If the ripening of the radishes can be successfully slowed down, your radishes will last longer in the freezer. Blanching also preserves the original color of your radishes.
- After the 4 minutes are complete, remove the radishes from inside the boiling water and put them in a bowl of ice water. Once the radishes are cooled down, pour out the water and let them dry.
- Finally, take the pieces of your blanched radishes and secure them inside resealable freezer-safe bags. You may also write the current date on the freezer bags to help keep track of time.
How to Defrost Frozen Radishes
Thawing frozen radishes is a simple and straightforward process. When you’re ready to use the frozen radishes, take them out of the freezer and run them under some cold water. This process is quite fast and the radishes will be thawed in no time.
You should know that you can’t get the same exact quality back after freezing the radishes. If you want to get the freshest taste of radishes you’ll need to cook and eat them immediately.
How to Store Radishes in Dirt
An effective alternative to freezing is to store the radishes in dirt. This is an interesting and also effective way of preserving your radishes – it gives you about 3 months of preservation. Here are a few easy steps to use when you want to store radishes in dirt:
- Get a box that’s large enough to contain all the radishes and put moist soil in the box.
- Next, place the radishes you wish to preserve in the dirt; allow the whole body of the radish to be covered in soil, but the green parts can be above.
- Locate a dark area of your house, like the basement, and sit the dirt-filled box there.
- Make sure that the soil is kept moist from time to time.