Have you ever had leftover Daikon sitting in your fridge and you don’t know what to use it for? Or don’t know what to do with that beautiful leaves that come with white root? I’d like to share a few recipes to help you use up the whole Daikon.
All dishes below can be made ahead and they will stay perfectly good in fridge for 3–4 days, so prepare all tasty Daikon dishes while it’s fresh!
The first is quick daikon leaf pickles. If you are lucky to get a daikon with fresh leaves attached, I’d like you to try this. It tastes great on warm rice with a dash of soy sauce.
Quick Daikon Leaf Pickles:
- Daikon Leaves 2 cup, chopped
- Skinny end of Daikon
- Salt 1 tbsp
- Wash the leaves well, then cut up in about 1/4″ to 1/2″ long, and slice the skinny end of daikon add both in the bowl.
- Add salt to the bowl and mix with hand, like massaging the salt into the leaves.
- Once the leaves and sliced daikon became soft and limp, add about a cup of water and rinse off some salt. You want a little saltiness left.
- Squeeze water out and serve.
Next dish is one of my favorite, sautéd Daikon Leaves with Aburaage (fried tofu skin). I use only soy sauce as seasoning, you can add sesame oil for added flavor if you have it.
Sautéd Daikon Leaves and Aburaage:
- Daikon Leaves 2–3 cups, chopped
- Aburaage 1 piece
- Skinny end of Daikon or left over Daikon skin
- Soy sauce 1 tbsp
- Sesame oil to taste
- Wash the leaves well and cut up in about 1″ length. Cut Aburaage in to half (length-wise) then cut in 1/4″ width. Slice the leftover parts of Daikon in 1/8″ thick.
- Heat up frying pan in medium heat. Add vegetable oil and cook chopped leaves until the hard stem part is becoming translucent and leaves are limp. Then add Aburaage and cook another minutes or so.
- Add soy sauce and a dash of sesame oil. Cook another few minutes and serve.
The last dish is Stewed Daikon. This recipe can be adapted into many root vegetable stew. I used some fish cake but you can use chicken or pork instead, or use Atsuage (thick fried tofu) or hearty mushrooms such as shiitake or eringi.
Stewed Daikon:
- Daikon about 5″ long of 2″ diameter daikon
- Carrot 1 medium
- Fish Cake (I used fried fish ball) 3 pieces, cut in half
- Katsuobushi (Dried Bonito Flake) handfull
- Sake 1 tbsp
- Agave or sugar 1 tbsp
- Say sauce 2 tbsp
- Wash Daikon well and peel the skin. cut in half in length-wise, then cut in to 1″ thick. (make half-moon pieces)
- Put Daikon in a medium size pot and add water to cover the pieces. Bring to boil in high heat. Once boiled, reduce the heat and cook for a couple of minutes.
- While boiling the Daikon, cut up the carrot and fish cake into bite size.
- Drain semi-cooked Daikon into colander. By doing this step, daikon will receive the flavor of broth and seasoning better.
- Add 2 cups of water in the pot and bring to boil. Add Katsuobushi in a tea bag, and add semi-cooked Daikon. You can also use pre-made dashi broth. Alternatively, you can use the water from re-hydrating dried shiitake, or skip this dashi part altogether.
- Add carrot and fish cake in the pot and season with sake, soy sauce, and agave.
- Once it’s boiled, reduce the heat and simmer for 10–15 minutes, until the carrot is cooked. You can serve immediately, but the flavor will increase if you leave it in the pot for a while until it cools down a little.
Daikon is packed with vitamin C and also rich in enzyme that helps digestion. It’s also a regular ingredients for miso soup, pickles, and salad. Please see related recipes linked below: