Wild Radish Greens in Olive Oil
The peppery bite of the mustard family: briefly boiled and dressed with garlic and plenty of olive oil. The quickest of the Aegean winter greens.
- Time
- 20 minutes
- Serves
- Serves 4
- Level
- Easy
- Cuisine
- Turkish
⚠ If you are foraging — identification comes first. Edible wild plants have poisonous look-alikes, some of them lethal. Do not pick anything you are not certain of, and go with someone who knows if it is your first time. Roadsides, the edges of sprayed fields and industrial areas are not gathering grounds.
Turp otu is the leaf of the wild radish (Raphanus raphanistrum) — a brassica, and so a member of the mustard family. It is abundant along the Aegean and Marmara coasts in winter, at the edges of cultivated ground, in fallow fields and between vine rows.
Its sharp, peppery taste is the family signature: mustard, rocket, cress and radish all carry the same group of compounds, the glucosinolates. When the plant is crushed or chewed these break down and produce that heat. Boiling softens it — which is why the time is kept short, so it is not lost altogether.
The dish uses the same technique as wild chicory in olive oil but delivers the opposite flavour: chicory is bitter, wild radish is sharp. The two are also cooked together; in the Aegean a pan of mixed greens usually is exactly that.
Directions
- Cut away the tough lower stems and separate out the young leaves and stems.
- Wash twice in plenty of water and drain.
- Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil.
- Drop the greens in and boil, lid off, for four to five minutes — keep it short, so the bite is not lost entirely.
- Drain, refresh in cold water, squeeze out the liquid by hand and chop roughly.
- Heat the olive oil in a wide pan and turn the sliced garlic until fragrant but not coloured.
- Add the greens and stir for two or three minutes, until they meet the oil.
- Take off the heat and add the lemon juice, and the chilli flakes if using.
- Serve at room temperature with lemon wedges.
Tips & storage
Boil briefly. Four to five minutes is enough. Boiled longer, wild radish loses both its bite and its texture and becomes a wet green.
Don't burn the garlic. It does not need to colour; add the greens the moment it becomes fragrant. Browned garlic turns the whole plate bitter.
Don't skip the squeezing. Cooking water left in the leaves fills the pan, and the greens go on boiling instead of frying.
Pick before flowering. Once the yellow flowers open the leaves toughen and the sharpness turns into an unpleasant bitterness.
The chilli is optional and usually unnecessary. The green is already peppery; together the two can be too much.
It is also made mixed. Chicory, nettle and wild radish can be boiled together and dressed the same way; adjust the proportions to taste.
Storage. Two days in the fridge. As good cold as warm.
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