Why radishes are a gateway drug & a radish tarte Tatin for your first score

Radishes are everything a homegrown vegetable should be. And, when roasted, as in this tarte Tatin recipe, a magical transformation occurs.

If you grow nothing else, grow radishes.

They have everything a homegrown vegetable should have, and, for newcomers, are an easy, accessible way to try out growing and discover your green fingers.

The perfect gateway drug. They are:

• Easy to grow: just sow thinly over finely tilled compost, cover lightly with a sprinkling of more compost, water and wait.

• Great for small spaces: they will grow in window boxes, or even an old margarine tub.

• Fast: with a fair wind, they’ll be ready in 5 weeks.

• Varied: some varieties are purple and slender, others rotund and ruby red, others white.

• Tastier: homegrown radishes are a world away from shop-bought ones. You haven’t tasted the true peppery, fresh kick of a radish until you’ve grow your own.

• Flexible: radishes can be grown anytime from March to October so there’s no stress.

I have just sown some radishes (a mixture of French Breakfast - long and red, Cherry Belle - round and pink, and Amethyst which is purple). I could have sown them a few weeks ago, but the ground was so wet and the air so dank that I suspect germination would have been disappointing. No matter, with a decent, mild week to settle them in (which the BBC weather presenter assured me of this very morning), they will catch up and be ready by the end of May. In the meantime, radishes sold in bunches (like these), ideally with mud still clinging to the roots, will do perfectly well for this recipe.

Radish tarte Tatin with herb topping

We should roast radishes more often. Their taste becomes mellow and sweet; the skin blisters and wrinkles, taking on a rose pink tone that only the hardest of hearts could not find adorable. All of this makes them perfect for a tarte Tatin which relies on fruit or vegetables that caramelise when cooked. Serve this with goats cheese on the side or daubed on top as you wish.

Serves 4

• 1 375g packet of ready-rolled all-butter puff pastry