I popped up to the allotment early this morning to do some watering and thought I’d have a look at how my mooli were doing. Mooli, also known as daikon, is a long oriental radish that doesn’t have a lot of flavour but works well for bulking out dishes. I was somewhat surprised to find that the plants ready to harvest weren’t those white roots but instead black radishes!

I’ve heard them called “black Spanish radishes” as well but further research shows they are sometimes know as black mooli. I think when I was given the tray of seedlings it must have been a mix of both types.

Whether the white mooli will come to anything worthwhile remains to be seen. At the moment they are still pretty undeveloped. However the black mooli have been worthwhile – we had some of them sliced up and roasted in a miso and garlic mix as a side for dinner tonight (recipe here) so, although a surprise, it wasn’t an unpleasant or wasted one.