This little piggy went to the farmers market

Our first radishes popped up out of the ground this week. The Ladies™ had a lot of fun pulling up those little red-skinned bulbs of joy. I was excited that my seeds had grown, and The Ladies™ were excited as they are four-years old and what could be more fun that playing in dirt?

For such dinky, dainty little radishes, they were fiery little buggers: a delightful initial crispy crunch with a l-o-o-o-o-ng, spicy after-burn. These little guys had too much of a kick to be enjoyed on their own, so I built a salad around them to tone them down. I added baby salad turnips (bought from the Farmers’ Market last Saturday) and our home-grown mint to create a vegetarian salad that would go really well with grilled shrimp or chicken (sorry vegetarians!)

Baby salad turnip, radish and sesame salad recipe

Ingredients – serves 2

• 4-5 baby salad turnips – peeled if you want them less spicy and in julienne strips (that’s a fancy way of saying cut into matchstick size sticks)

• 4-5 radishes – julienne strips

• ¼ finely chopped white cabbage

• 2 tbsp fresh chopped mint

• 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds (to toast heat in a sauce pan for a few minutes tossing frequently, remove from heat when golden. Warning- they can go from golden to burnt very quickly)

Mix the ingredients together in a salad bowl and then toss with the dressing.

Here’s how to make the dressing:

Just whisk the following ingredients together, adjust slightly as needed for flavor:

• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• Lime juice to taste
• Salt and pepper