What’s rad about radishes?
Maya McDonald | Fulcrum Contributor
I’LL ADMIT TO being a lover of all vegetables—all except radishes. To me, what makes them so unforgiving is their strong taste. But unfortunately for my taste buds, radishes are among a number of foods that doctors and other health specialists recommend for their nutritional value and health benefits.
So I began researching these raunchy root vegetables and decided to give them a second chance. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention helped influence my decision with their informative nutrition facts. Radishes are rich in vitamin C—a half-cup serving satisfies approximately one sixth of your recommended daily intake—which is essential to keeping you looking and feeling strong and healthy. The same serving of radishes also contains one gram of fibre, which helps regulate your digestive system and control caloric intake.
Most people mix radishes into a salad of leafy greens, cherry tomatoes and cucumbers, which is great if you can stand the taste of them. But if you’re sensitive to their pungency, here’s a fun way to sneak radishes into a sweet fruit smoothie. This recipe was tested and labelled delicious by yours truly, and if I can eat it, then I’m sure you can too. I fell in love with this particular smoothie recipe for one reason—the radishes remained undetected when blended with the fruits I had in my freezer at the time. Feel free to use any fruit you like—the taste of the drink can totally be controlled by the creator.
Rad-iculous fruit smoothie
- 1 cup skim milk (substitute: soy, almond, or rice milk)
- 2 cups frozen fruit (I like using strawberries, peaches, pineapple, mango, and papaya)
- ¼ cup chopped kale
- ¼ cup chopped radishes
- ½ cup vanilla yogurt (substitute: sweetened plain yogurt)
This blended concoction makes about 3–4 servings, just enough to share with your roommates or to put it in the fridge and save for another day. Shake well if you opt for the latter choice—the contents of the smoothie will separate over time.
The amount of nutrients in this drink will get your morning off to a great start, or you can sip it throughout the entire day for a boost in between meals.
It looks like the trend of adding veggies to smoothies is sticking around for a while, so hop on board with this recipe and get blending!
