White Radish Quick Soup

White radish or Daikon is a humble ingredient and very affordable in Northern China, which is where I grew up. There is a saying in Chinese that goes 冬吃萝卜 夏吃姜 (in the winter, we eat radish, in the summer, we eat ginger).

Younger me didn’t like eating white radish at all. I think Daikon is a taste that we acquire as adults. It’s quite sharp when eaten raw.

The way I prefer to eat my daikon is to make a quick soup. It’s quick. Total cook time is 15 mins, and you can make many variations from it.

The essential steps are:

1. in a soup pot, add a bit of oil and chopped garlic, chopped daikon.
2. Stir fry for 2–3 mins here, add soy sauce and salt to taste.
3. Add water into the pot, boil for 5 mins
4. Taste and season more if you like miso paste or Hondashi powder. (Optional)
5. Boil for another 5–10 mins until the radish is soft. Turn off the heat. Drizzle some toasted sesame oil to finish the dish!

Once you have gotten the basic version of the soup down. Here are some of my favorite variations.

1. At Step-2 above, you can stir fry some chopped tomatos or tomato paste if it’s only made from tomatos and salt.
2. I have also at Step-2, stir fry some shrimp heads for taste, you don’t eat the shrimp heads here, it’s just for the flavor of the stock.
3. Finally for some much needed protein to boost the soup, add firm tofu. You can freeze firm tofu after you cut them into pieces, and add to the soup at Step-3.