Korean Pickled Radish (aka Pickled Daikon Radish) (2024)

Radishes are some of my favorite pickling vegetables - they provide a nice sweet, crunchy side to any meal (not just Korean banchan). Korean pickled radish tends to use a white-yellow radish and can sometimes be hard to find in the US, so I've made this a pickled daikon radish instead.

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💭 Why you'll love this recipe

• Five ingredient recipe: You'll need five ingredients, four of which are likely already in your house!
• Ready in a day, and stays fresh for a week: It takes just 15 minutes of active preparation, and then chill in a fridge for it to get delish!
• Great side dish and taco topper: This dish is served in most traditional "banchan" (Korean side-dishes). I also love throwing this on tacos (like my gochujang cauliflower tacos) and sandwiches (like Korean Gilgeori toast) with reckless abandon!

📋 Ingredients and notes

You need Korean radishes or daikon radishes, distilled white vinegar, sugar, salt and water for this recipe. You can totally use other types of vinegar, but I find that white vinegar (either distilled or rice vinegar) is best for this recipe.

Notes and Variations

• Using red radishes: if you can't find a daikon radish, you could use a traditional red radish in this recipe as well.
• Using Korean spices: I love to sometimes add gochugaru, Korean red pepper flakes, to my pickling jar to provide a hint of heat to the pickles

📖 Step-by-step instructions

Prepare the radishes

Start by slicing off the ends of the radishes and then peeling them. Then, slice them into roughly even sized cubes. I used roughly 0.8 ounces of radish for this recipe.

Prepare the pickling liquid

In a small saucepan, add half cup of white vinegar, half cup of water, three tablespoons of sugar and one teaspoon of salt. Heat this until it dissolves, then allow it to cool to room temperature.

Pickle the radishes

Add the radish cubes to an airtight glass jar. You can also add garlic cloves or Korean gochugaru (red pepper flakes) for enhancing the flavor if you desire. Then, pour the pickling liquid over the radishes until it covers all of them fully.

Refrigerate overnight or for a day, and then your pickled radishes will be ready to go the next day. The flavor typically builds over time so you'll get more pronounced notes after 48 to 54 hours, and it'll stay fresh for up to a week!

👩🏽‍🍳Top tips and FAQs

🍴 Serving and storage suggestions

Korean pickled radishes tend to stay fresh for up to a week. I love serving them up on both traditional Korean and non-traditional dishes. For instance:

• Serve as "banchan" or a typical Korean side dish to traditional dishes like bibimbap, or jjigae (i.e., stews)
• Add as toppers to your favorite sandwiches - sometimes, I'll thinly slice the radishes instead of cubes and add them to Gilgeori toast!
• Just consume as a regular old snack!

If you like this recipe, try out my other quick pickle recipes:

If you tried this recipe, don't forget to comment and rate! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

📖 Recipe