Sunday 3 August 2008

Prepare Daikon leaves

Here is one way to prepare daikon leaves if you find them too tough or too bitter to eat.


  1. Salt the leaves.

  2. Leave it overnight, massage them from time to time. The liquid of the leaves would come out a bit.

  3. Squeeze the liquid out. Wash out the excess salty water.

  4. Chop into small pieces.

  5. Stir fry with some chili, delicious.


......

Daikon leaves are full of Vitamin A, Vitamin B1, B2 ,Vitamin C and Iron.

To eat whole food is always good from Chinese Traditonal Medicine's point of view. Because each part of the vegetables usually has different properties, by eating whole food you get a more balanced diet. So don't threw away your Daikon leaves!

From CTM's point of view, the properties of Daikon are:
Daikon leaves: Neutral, sweet and bitter.
Daikon roots: Cool, sweet, and Pungent.

More information on Food properties in CTM, see:

Propterties of Food From a TCM Perspective


Rub the leaves with salt.



















Leave it overnight, massage them from time to time. The liquid of the leaves would come out a bit.


Chop into small pieces. Stir fry with some chili.

6 comments:

Maggie said...

Thanks for this recipe Ting.
I guess the salting and standing overnight would draw out the bitterness, I notice you then wash the greens to remove excess salt.
I have salted eggplant to remove the bitterness but never greens.
This principle could be used on other greens, like beetroot tops, I guess.
Cabbage is also prepared by salting in Japan and Ukraine.
Its great you have joined our group I am sure we can learn a lot from each other

Ting said...

Any ideas of preparing sorrels?
I steamed them and they tasted super sour!

I have no idea how to use Vietnamese mint neither.

Any suggestions everybody?

Maggie said...

For sorrel soup I cook some diced potatoes until soft then add blanched or fresh sorrel and cook a few minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste, some people add cream and chopped hard cooked egg.
It is a sour soup but blanching and discarding the water will reduce this.

Anonymous said...

Hi Ting,

This looks like a great recipe. I never really considered growing daikon radish, but this has really started me thinking about it. Do you have some extra seeds? Could you give them to Kate for when she visits Europe?

Kate said...

Patrick, I have more daikon seeds than you could poke a stick at! I will happily bring you some. I love to eat the seed pods when they are still green. They are crisp and lovely in salads.

Ting said...

Kate:
Thank you.

Patrick:
This is my first time growing Daikon. I didn't grow enough! I have selected a strong plant, I'll save seeds from it later.
A friend of mine told me radishes crossed with each other. So if you want to save daikon seeds, don't plant them with others radish.
Grow well!