Suddenly the recipe pages of newspapers and supermarket magazines are full of radishes; finely sliced and scattered over salads,in oriental soups and much more. Revival of the radish! Shame on me, there isn’t a single recipe let alone a radish chapter in The Allotment Kitchen.

It isn’t that I don’t like radishes but just that I tended to use them as decoration when they were to hand. Now I’m a convert and planting enough radishes in succession to hopefully give us a constant supply during the summer. They are peppery,crunchy,spicy and fun I plan to make amends by putting my favourite radish recipes onto this website.

I was in France recently and my friend Clotilde showed me her son-in-law’s vegetable garden in the countryside outside Marseilles. He made wonderful soup from the radish leaves. Now it’s my turn to try. Our radish leaves have been attacked by flea beetle and are not sightly but green, tender and fine for soup.

A handful of radish leaves, washed
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large potato, peeled and diced
1 medium onion, sliced
1 litre good chicken stock
3-4 radishes topped, tailed and finely sliced for decoration
Salt

Put the olive oil in a medium sized saucepan and when hot add the sliced onion. Fry, stirring from time to time,until the onion is soft but not brown. Add the diced potato and continue cooking for a few minutes. Add the radish leaves and stir them around, then add most of the chicken stock. Season and cover. Leave to simmer for about 20 minutes or until the potato is soft.

Take off the heat and, in batches, blitz the soup in a blender. Add more stock if the soup seems thick.Check for seasoning. Return to the heat and slowly bring to near boiling point.

Serve hot with the slices of radish scattered on top.