Latvian Red Radish Salad with Sour Cream and Dill
This Latvian red radish salad with sour cream and dill is one of my absolute favorites. Four ingredients, ten minutes. Grate the radishes by hand or blitz them in a food processor, stir through sour cream and fresh dill, season generously, and that’s it.
The sharpness of raw radish pretty much disappears once it meets the sour cream. I’m not a big fan of spicy food, and I can eat a whole bowl of this!
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Red Radish with Sour Cream Salad – Quick Overview
- Prep time: 10 minutes. Cook time: 0 minutes.
- Servings: 4
- Key ingredients: red radishes, sour cream, dill (or chives, or neither)
- Why it works: grating the radishes gives the sour cream much more surface area to work with, and the peppery bite softens in a way sliced radishes never do
- Watch out: season generously at the end. This salad really needs salt.
- Best on the day, fine for a couple of days. Give it a stir before serving!
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Vecmāmiņa (my Latvian grandmother) made this radish sour cream salad every week with a box grater, with the kind of patience I have never once managed to find. I use a food processor 🙂.
She always served it as part of a bigger spread: rye bread, open-faced cottage cheese sandwiches, smoked fish, a few other little salads alongside. You can see what a spread like that looks like over on The Baltic Table. I think of her every time I make it.
This is also one of the recipes I make pretty much every week. It’s that good. And it’s about as Latvian as a recipe gets. If you don’t know my story, you can read more about me here.
Table of contents
- Red Radish with Sour Cream Salad – Quick Overview
- What Makes This Radish Salad Special
- Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Ingredients
- Substitutions and Variations
- How to Make Latvian Red Radish Salad
- Red Radish Salad with Sour Cream and Dill Tips
- What to Serve With Red Radish Salad
- Storage and Make-Ahead
- FAQ
- Latvian Red Radish Salad with Sour Cream Recipe Card
What Makes This Radish Salad Special
Raw radishes are sharp and peppery. But if you grate them, stir them through sour cream, that sharpness pretty much disappears. What you’re left with is the clean, slightly earthy flavor of radish, without the pepper. I find it surprising every time, even though I’ve eaten this since I was little.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Ready in ten minutes. Wash, grate, stir, season. That’s really it!
- The peppery bite disappears. If raw radishes have never been your thing, this is the radish salad recipe that might just change that.
- Works with radishes that are past their best. Don’t throw them out, grate them.
- Four ingredients. Salt and pepper count as one.
- Goes with everything. Baltic breakfast table, alongside quiche, next to grilled chicken, fish, pork or beef for lunch or dinner.
Ingredients
Full quantities in the recipe card below.
Red radishes – Two bunches, roughly 400 to 450g / 14 to 16 oz. Fresh and firm is ideal, but slightly soft ones work perfectly well here too! They’re also low in carbs and packed with vitamins. More on that here if you’re curious.
Sour cream – Full-fat gives the best result. Low-fat works too, though the dressing will be a little thinner. Start with half a cup (about 120g) and add more if you’d like it creamier.
Fresh dill – A good handful, roughly chopped. Fresh dill is what makes this salad. Dried works too, just stir it into the sour cream first, about 1 teaspoon for every tablespoon of fresh. And if you’re out of both, radish salad with sour cream on its own is still very good. But fresh dill is worth it if you can get it.
If you grew up in Latvia or anywhere in the Baltic region, dill isn’t really an herb. It goes into everything: soups, salads, fish, potatoes, and anything else that holds still long enough. I am completely that person. The Baltic asparagus soup with dill and the French cucumber salad are the next two recipes if you love dill like me 🙂
Chives – (Optional) A small bunch, finely chopped. The dill does most of the work here; the chives add a gentle onion note alongside it. Scatter some over the top too.
Salt and black pepper – Don’t hold back! A generous amount of salt is what pulls this whole salad together.
Substitutions and Variations
- No chives? Skip them. The dill carries the salad perfectly well on its own, and the salad is also good with no herb at all.
- Sour cream – Full-fat is best. Low-fat sour cream and Greek yogurt (full-fat or low-fat) all work. The dressing will be a little thinner but still very good.
How to Make Latvian Red Radish Salad
Three steps. That’s it!
Step 1: Prepare the radishes and the herbs. Wash them and trim both ends – the root tip and the leafy top. No need to peel. The fastest method is a food processor: two bunches takes about two minutes. A box grater gives a slightly finer result and is just as good. Roughly chopping or slicing by hand works too if you prefer a chunkier texture.
Step 2. Add the sour cream and herbs. Spoon the sour cream over the grated radishes. Add the dill and chives.
Step 3: Season and stir. Salt generously, add a good grind of pepper, and stir everything together. Taste and keep adjusting — this salad usually needs more salt than you’d expect. Scatter the remaining herbs over the top as a garnish. Note: if you see liquid gathering in the bowl as it sits, that’s completely normal. Just give it a stir before serving.
Red Radish Salad with Sour Cream and Dill Tips
- Grate rather than slice. The sour cream coats everything so much better and the flavor is noticeably nicer for it.
- Season at the end, not before. Salting too early draws out more liquid than you want.
- Be generous with the salt. Keep tasting and adjusting before you serve.
- Save some herbs for the top. The garnish stays brighter and the red radish salad looks so much prettier for it.
- Dried dill: mix into the sour cream first so it disperses evenly.
What to Serve With Red Radish Salad
In Latvia, this doesn’t usually appear on its own. It’s part of a spread: rye bread with butter, open-faced sandwiches with cottage cheese or smoked salmon, maybe some chicken liver pâté, and two or three small vegetable salads alongside. This one, the creamy cucumber salad, the grated carrot salad, all on the table at once, and you take a little of everything.
It’s a savory breakfast, which surprises people the first time. And it works just as well for lunch as it does for breakfast.
It also works really well as a side dish. Serve it alongside Latvian kotletes – pan-fried meat patties that are about as Baltic as this salad is. I also often serve it alongside little quiche tartlets, asparagus ricotta quiche or quiche Lorraine, and it’s great next to lemon pepper chicken drumsticks too.
Storage and Make-Ahead
- Best on the day it’s made. It keeps in the fridge for two to three days in an airtight container. Some liquid will gather at the bottom, so give it a stir before serving.
- Making ahead for guests: keep the grated radishes and sour cream separate in the fridge and combine just before serving. Add fresh herbs at the end.
FAQ
Like radish, but without the pepper! The sharpness almost entirely disappears once grated radishes meet sour cream. Fresh, crunchy, and mild. It surprises most people the first time.
Full-fat or low-fat Greek yogurt both work. The result will be a little looser and tangier than with sour cream, but still very good.
Not at all. You can use just dill, just chives, or skip the herbs entirely. The salad is good all three ways.
Grated radishes release moisture as they sit. Totally normal! Give it a stir and drain off any excess if you prefer. Next time, dress it just before serving.
Regular small red radishes, the round ones from any supermarket. Not daikon, not watermelon radish. Just the ordinary ones!
Can I make this ahead?
Yes, up to a day ahead. Keep the grated radishes and sour cream separate in the fridge and combine just before serving. Already dressed, it keeps for two to three days.
Wash and trim the radishes, grate them using a box grater or food processor (or slice them if you prefer) , stir through sour cream and herbs, season generously. That’s genuinely it.
You can! The texture will be different, more like a classic radish salad, and the sour cream won’t soften the peppery bite quite as much. But it works, and it’s still a good salad. If you have a food processor or a box grater handy though, grating is worth it for the better flavor and texture.
Made this? A star rating below helps other home cooks find it. I read every comment. ❤️
Latvian Red Radish Salad with Sour Cream Recipe Card
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Latvian Red Radish Salad
Equipment
- 1 medium bowl
- 1 Food processor or box grater or knife
Ingredients
- 2 bunches red radishes approx. 400 to 450g / 14 to 16 oz
- 1/2 cup full-fat sour cream plus more to taste (120g / 4 oz)
- 3 tablespoons fresh dill roughly chopped
- 2 tablespoons fresh chives finely chopped
- Salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Wash the radishes and trim both ends. No need to peel. Grate using the large holes of a box grater, or blitz in a food processor. Chop the herbs.
- Spoon the sour cream over the grated radishes. Add most of the dill and chives.
- Season generously with salt and black pepper. Stir everything together and taste. It usually needs more salt than you’d expect. Scatter the remaining herbs over the top. Serve immediately or refrigerate for 15 to 20 minutes. Stir before serving.
Notes
- Dried dill: stir into the sour cream before combining so it distributes evenly. Use 1 teaspoon dried for every tablespoon of fresh.
- Storage: best on the day. Keeps 2 to 3 days in the fridge. Stir before serving as some liquid will gather.
- Make ahead: keep radishes and sour cream separate, combine just before serving.
- Sour cream: full-fat gives the best result. Low-fat sour cream and Greek yogurt (full-fat or low-fat) also work well.
- Herbs: dill is the Latvian way. Chives add a gentle onion note alongside. You can use just one or skip both.
Nutrition
What to Make Next
- French Cucumber Salad – yes, I know it says French, but it’s the same salad in the Baltic region. It’s the companion salad on every Baltic breakfast table; if you’re making one, you might as well make both
- Grated Carrot Salad – sweeter, and a lovely color alongside the radish salad on a spread
- Carrots and cucumber salad – Crunchy and pretty
- Easy Red Cabbage Salad – another simple vegetable salad, good color on a spread, and no mayo
- Chicken Liver Pâté – if you’re putting together a proper Baltic breakfast plate, this is the thing that makes it feel like a real meal
This sounds amazing. Simple ingredients to make a great side. I love radishes.
Thanks Mary Ann 🙂 I love radishes too!