Radish Sandwiches With Butter and Salt

Updated June 11, 2021

Radish Sandwiches With Butter and Salt
Rikki Snyder for The New York Times
Total Time
10 minutes
Rating
5(1,145)
Comments
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Steven Satterfield, the chef at Miller Union in Atlanta, included this very French picnic recipe in his cookbook, "Root to Leaf." As he points out, the key is to use a lot of butter, a lot of radishes and plenty of salt. The recipe yields four sturdy desk- or school-lunch sandwiches, or you can divide them further, into a dozen little bites for hors d’oeuvres. —Sam Sifton

Featured in: ‘Root to Leaf,’ a Field Guide to Vegetables

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Ingredients

Yield:Serves 4
  • 1baguette
  • 12tablespoons (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 2teaspoons flaky sea salt, like Maldon
  • 2bunches radishes, washed, trimmed and thinly sliced
  • 1small handful arugula
  • 1teaspoon finely minced fresh garden herbs, like chives or tarragon
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)

519 calories; 36 grams fat; 22 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 10 grams monounsaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 41 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams dietary fiber; 5 grams sugars; 9 grams protein; 480 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Slice the baguette lengthwise and then crosswise, creating four quarters. Spread butter on the tops and bottoms of each quarter and sprinkle with salt. Pile sliced radishes onto the bottoms, then lay the arugula on top of them and sprinkle with the herbs. Top the sandwiches and press them down firmly.

  2. Step 2

    Serve as is, cut into small sandwiches for hors d’oeuvres, or wrap for lunch.

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Ratings

5 out of 5
1,145 user ratings
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Comments

Yes! My European parents always had cleaned radishes floating in water in a jar in the refridgerator, and dense German bread. We put the salt on the radishes, not on the butter - when the radishes sweat, they lose a little of their sharp edge. And only a thin layer of room temperature (spreadable) butter, MUCH less than 12 Tablespoons!

Try mixing a couple mashed anchovies into the butter, instead of salt. Sounds odd, but I'm telling you - if you've never had radishes and anchovy butter together, you are missing out! No fishy taste - just wonderful umami that is a beautiful contrast to the radish. I also like to toast baguette rounds to make crostini, rather than soft bread. The fresher the radish, the better. Sprinkle chives on top you have a beautiful and delicious hor d'oevre that others will swoon over.

We use a truffle shaver to get wafer-thin radishes and make these open faced. Crack open a tin of sustainably harvested sardines in olive oil to top and it's a fav picnic meal. There might also be a couple of mason jars of rose in the mix too :) Nom nom nom

Can someone explain what mass delusion has elevated this to 5 stars? A radish is a radish. Butter and salt can't transform it. And placing a cold, peppery vegetable on a piece of bread and calling it a sandwich makes a mockery of what a sandwich is.

My other used to make this all summer long, except she used cream cheese on the bread rather than butter. Delicious.

Very nice but I make them mostly because they are so pretty.

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Credits

Adapted from ‘Root to Leaf’ (HarperWave, 2015)

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