Shaved Radish Salad with Soft-Poached Egg Yolk | The Culinary Vegetable Institute

Farmer Lee Jones—Rach's "favorite veg head in a bib and a bow tie"—and his team at The Culinary Vegetable Institute in Milan, Ohio, share their colorful salad with an unexpected twist: under the elegant tumble of shaved radishes is a perfectly poached egg yolk set in a pillow of creme fraiche. The fat from the yolk and cream helps mellow the bite of the radish. It's a lovely combination. 

You can use any variety of radishes or, really, any variety of raw shaved vegetables that you like. (For aesthetics, aim to use vegetables that have the approximate circumference of a golf ball.) Soaking shaved root vegetables in ice water gives them new life, making them extraordinarily crisp. This is because the cellular walls swell with water so they become very rigid. As a bonus for soaking them, the spicy and earthy flavors of the vegetables soften, making them more pleasant to eat when raw. 

Winter radishes, such as black radishes, daikon and watermelon radishes, have a delicate peppery flavor. However, the flavor and intensity can vary from mildly hot to very pungent and somewhat bitter, depending on the age and size. They're great thinly shaved or grated raw in a salad or slaw, or sauteed, roasted, braised or even pickled (See how Rach uses watermelon radishes in her Thai-Style Sloppy Joes).

Pro Tips from Lee: For short-term storage, keep radishes in the fridge wrapped in a damp cloth in a plastic bag. For longer-term storage, freeze them: cut them into smaller pieces and blanch in boiling water for 2 to 3 minutes. Meanwhile, don't discard the radish leaves—you can eat them!  Use them the way you would use spinach, chard or kale. Cooking them removes the fuzzy mouth feel.    

For more recipes from The Culinary Vegetable Institute, check out their Old-School Creamed Spinach and Smashed Jerusalem Artichokes. Rach also makes this lovely pureed soup with their Jerusalem artichokes.