The past few weeks I’ve been getting a bunch of daikon radishes in my CSA basket. I had been waiting for the radishes because I wanted to try fermenting them to make Takuan, a traditional Japanese pickle. The way I wanted to do it originally was with rice bran, but I didn’t really plan ahead and didn’t have any rice bran. I was afraid some of the older veggies were going to go off if I didn’t do something with them, so I found another recipe for Takuan that is a little more familiar to me. But if I get anymore daikons, I am going to get the rice bran and ferment them that way too. In the meantime, this is the recipe I used.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients:

5-6 lbs daikon radishes, thinly sliced (please watch your fingers!)

2 medium onions, sliced

9 cloves of garlic

6 Tbsp sea salt

5 Tbsp crushed red pepper

3 Tbsp powdered ginger

3 Tbsp maple syrup

Directions:

1. Mix salt, ginger, and maple syrup with about 3 quarts of water until the salt dissolves to make brine.

2. Place a couple of cloves of garlic, 1/4 of an onion, and red pepper in the bottom of a quart Mason jar, then add daikon slices up to about 1 1/4″ below the top of the jar.

3. Fill the jar with the brine so that the veggies are all covered, leaving about an inch at the top.

4. Loosely put the lid on and let ferment for anywhere between a week and a few months.

5. Try it once in a while to see how it’s tasting; put in fridge to stop (or at least significantly slow down) fermentation.

 UPDATE: These are delicious and very spicy! I was very surprised at the flavor, but I could eat these every day. If you decide to do these, I would suggest fermenting them in your garage or other well ventilated area as they smell super funky the first few weeks.