Roasted Black Radishes

Yes, I know, they don't look black, but they were before I peeled them.  Well, and the sweet potatoes and apples never were.  This past Saturday at the market where I sell my baked goods, one of my of my favorite vendors had Spanish black radishes.  Since I had never tried black radishes and because I am one of those people who always has to try the most unusual food available, I had to have some.  I came home and started looking up recipes. Nothing seemed quite like what I wanted to try, but several websites compared them to turnips when cooked, so I decided on a variation of my usual roasted vegetable recipe.  Now, before you go out and hunt down black radishes, let me point out that they are a strong bitter vegetable similar to turnips or rutabagas.  I happen to enjoy that taste, but you may not.  The sweet potatoes and apples are a nice sweet-tart foil for the bitter, and the brown butter sage sauce is decadent.  In fact, you could use the sauce on many different roasted vegetables.  I particularly like it on butternut squash, which would be a nice addition to this recipe, but I didn't have any on hand, so I didn't include it.



Here are the black radishes fresh from the market.

The inside flesh of the radishes is not black, but almost white.  Apparently, the black peel is not something you want to eat, which is a shame since its dramatic color would make a beautiful dish.

I roasted mine in a glass baking dish.  Notice the black radishes are ironically the white pieces that don't have green peel on one side.

Roasted Fall Vegetables with Black Radishes in Sage Brown Butter Sauce

5 medium Spanish black radishes
2 medium sweet potatoes
1 large apple (I used Granny Smith)
1 Tbsp. olive oil
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
5 Tbsp. salted butter
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh sage

Preheat the oven  to 350 degrees.  Cut the radishes, sweet potatoes, and apple into bite sized pieces.  Toss with the olive oil.  You may need a little more or less if your vegetables and apple are larger or smaller than mine, but remember you only want enough to keep the vegetables and apple from drying out.  You don't want them too oily because you are going to put a butter sauce over them later.  Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.  I particularly enjoy quite a bit of the black pepper.  Toss again to distribute the salt and pepper.  Bake for 45 minute to 1 hour or until vegetables and apple are tender.  About 10 minutes before you expect the vegetables and apple to be finished baking, melt the butter in a small sauce pan over medium heat.  When the butter is melted, stir in the sage.  Cook the butter until it begins to turn brown.  Remove from heat.  When the vegetables and apple are finished cooking, pour the butter over them and stir to coat.