Daikon Pesto Recipe
INSPIRED BY JAPAN
SA
Daikon is also known as Japanese radish or true daikon. It’s a white radish, and its name literally means great root in Japanese. People in Japan find many culinary uses for the root vegetable—from pickling, simmering, or drying daikon to grating it into a soy sauce.
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Grated daikon is another common way people in Japan eat this root vegetable. It usually accompanies fish dishes, and it’s also used as a condiment to enhance the flavor of dishes like udon and soba noodles.
SAVE FOR LATER
Makes 1 1/2 cups
Ingredients
2 cups cubed daikon radish
2 scallions, chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh dill
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons soy sauce
Directions
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Combine all of the ingredients in a food processor. Blend until the desired consistency forms.
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If using a mortar and pestle, mash the daikon, scallions, and dill until smooth. Mix in the remaining ingredients. Mash until the desired consistency forms.
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Store pesto in an airtight container or jar in the refrigerator for up to one week. Use throughout the week in the next two recipes. Pesto can last in an airtight container in the freezer for up to six months.
Uses
Sushi Stack
Alongside the cultivation of rice 2,000 years ago, the Japanese were crafting sushi. The first version developed as a means to preserve fish using fermented rice. Centuries later, people started to eat fish and rice together.
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Edamame
The first documented reference to edamame was made in the 13th century. And it can be found in a Japanese monk’s thank you note written to his parishioner, who gave the monk a gift of these pod-enclosed soybeans. Today in Japan, edamame is a popular snack.
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