Pureed Wild Radish and Rutabaga

I recently coordinated a little volunteer expedition with a few friends pulling invasive species for Golden Gate Park's department out on Land's End. Land's End is near Ocean beach in San Francisco, and is absolutely gorgeous and a great place to go running or walking.

Anyhow, they had us pulling wild radish, which is an invasive species that take over the area and make it tough for the native species to thrive (there's a better definition here).

Some of the radishes we pulled up were really big (see picture of our friends Paul and Alex for size reference), so I decided to take a couple home to see if I could cook them up.

On my way out, one of the other volunteers said that if I managed to make anything decent I should email this woman Cynthia who had an invasive species cook book for recipes that include, for example, fennel or nasturcium which are invasive yet very tasty plants. Isn't that cool that someone actually wrote an invasive species cook book?!

Well, I went home, did some experimenting, and finally ended up making a nice little side dish out of those big bitter radishes. I emailed this woman Cynthia to let her know, but she never emailed me back, so I decided I'd post the recipe here. Maybe I should write a compet invasive species cook book. This could be my first recipe.

Anyhow, the wild radishes are really tough so you have to eat them cooked instead of raw. First I tried to roast them but they got really dry, so then I tried boiling them which worked much better. Also, like I mentioned, they are super bitter. I ended up having to add a rutabaga to the recipe to cut the bitterness. The radishes taste a lot like a mustardy rutabaga when boiled, so that worked out really nicely.

Here's the recipe:

Pureed Wild Radish and Rutabaga

• Peel and cut wild radishes into chunks
• Peel and cut equal parts rutabaga into chunks
• Boil radish and rutabaga together in a pot for about 15-20 minutes or until they are both very tender
• Add some milk, butter, salt and pepper to taste
• Blend with a mixer like you would mashed potatoes until creamy
• Serve as a side dish with meat or fish or anything really.
  

And here's a pictures of the finished dish. I should have taken it when it was plated and looking pretty, but you can get the idea.

It would be great to hear if anyone else out there has ever attempted to eat Wild Radish and what your recipe was.