Easy Pickled Daikon – Takuan (たくあん) | Japanese Cooking Recipes, Ingredients, Cookware

Ingredients

1 long daikon radish
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1 tablespoon sake (optional)

Cookware

Knife
Cutting board
Small pot
Mixing bowl
Pickling container

Quick Directions

Skin the daikon and cut into thin rounds.
Sprinkle daikon with salt and let sit for 2 hours to pull out moisture.
Add sugar, water, vinegar and sake to a small pan to bring to a boil. Stir until sugar dissolves and remove from heat.
Squeeze excess water out of daikon with your hands.
Place daikon in pickling container. Add liquid to container and let pickle for at least 2 days to develop flavor.

The Story

Takuan is a popular Japanese pickle traditionally made once a year and left alone for months fermenting to allow the flavor to fully develop. The fermenting process results in the a beautiful yellow colored pickle full of flavor. However, if you can’t find pickled daikon in a store near you, you might not want to commit to months of pickling for just one dish, delicious though it may be. So, this recipe is a easy variation for a quick pickle without the long fermentation. Still crisp and flavorful, in a fraction of the time!

But, you might be thinking, these pickles aren’t yellow. Well, yes, since we aren’t fermenting them for months, they don’t develop that beautiful golden color. If you want to make your pickles yellow, you can add a few drops of food coloring to the vinegar, or mix in a teaspoon of tumeric. (Tumeric is used for its color more so than flavor, and is often used to give boiled rice a yellow color. When you see yellow fried rice at a restaurant, it’s likely they colored it with tumeric!)

While I like to call this recipe quick, it’s not at all quick in comparison to my basic quick pickles. This recipe takes about two days, but when classic takuan takes months to prepare, two days is pretty quick!! The pickling brine serves as a perservative, so one batch will keep for at least a month – that is if you can stop yourself from eat them all right away! Takuan served with a hot bowl of rice and miso soup is a very simple yet oh so delicious meal!

Can’t find daikon? You can use any radish available to you. I’ve made it with red radishes before for a similar taste. While you’ll have to use a lot of them, I think the red skin makes a beautiful contrast to the pickle when sliced!

Recipe – Quick Pickled Diakon:

– Skin the daikon, then start slicing it into thin strips.

– Sprinkle the daikon with salt, then let it sit for about 2 hours to pull out some of the water and develop some crunch.

– While the daikon is salting, add the sugar, water, vinegar and sake to a small pan and bring to a boil. Let boil until the sugar is fully dissolved, then turn off the heat and let cool.

– After two hours, take the daikon a handful at a time and squeeze out as much water as you can. Set the squeezed daikon in a plastic container.

– Add the cooled liquid to the container, then cover with a lid and let sit for at least two days for flavor to develop!

– Serve chilled or at room temperature!

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Bill Andersoot

I made these today. I’m about three hours into the process and the flavor is already completely transformed and completely delicious. I can’t wait to taste the final pickles.

Just one change which I thought I’d share. I bought a small piece of daikon, sliced it into half moons, salted it, squeezed the liquid out, stuffed it into a jar, then followed Chef Michael Symon’s simple pickling process. Here it is:

“Place the vegetables to be pickled in a jar and cover them with water. Pour the water into a measuring cup. Note the volume, pour off half the water and replace it with vinegar. Add 2 tablespoons sugar for every three cups of liquid. Combine the liquid and any spices (I added katsuobushi) in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Allow to cool for a few minutes, then pour over the veggies, screw the lid on and refrigerate.”

Adding the hot liquid makes the pickling process a little safer, I think. And using Symon’s method means you can use any amount of daikon and any size jar and still achieve the proper acidity to keep you pickles safe from bacterial toxins like botulin.

Thank you so much for this recipe. I searched dozens of websites and chose your recipe as my starting point. I can’t wait to taste my first batch of takuan.
- Dani
  
  Thanks for your input!
  
  I agree, adding the hot liquid does help keep it “safer” by killing off bacteria, and since traditional takuan is made by sitting out over months, you definitely want to eliminate any risk of spoilage! It’s the same concept as when you’re sterilizing everything when canning pickles in mason jars.
  
  I think the process can be intimidating to new chefs though, so my goal with this method was to make a quick pickle to be eaten within a few days. I didn’t put as much emphasis on keeping everything sterile, since these aren’t intended for long storage and it might help get people interested in pickling methods if they see how simple it is. But, if you’re planning on making a huge batch and letting them sit for months, definitely boil and sterilize everything!
  - Bill Andersoot
    
    Just wanted to follow up. These are amazing pickles. I ate my first batch in a matter of days and am working on batch number 2. I doubt I’ll ever buy takuan again. Thanks so much for posting this recipe.
Nancy Chay

I’m so excited to try this recipe! I love these pickles but the original Japanese method seemed too daunting for me to tackle (having never pickled anything before.) Thank you for sharing!
- Dani
  
  I hope this method makes it easy for you! The most important thing when quick pickling is to get out all that water, so be sure to squeeze them really well after being salted! Then you’ll be on your way to a really great pickle! (^.O)
  - Nancy Chay
    
    I finally made some a few weeks ago and they tasted so delicious! 🙂 the only thing I wanted to ask about is the crunchy texture of the pickles. I want my takuan to be slightly softer in texture, is there any way to achieve that? I read that the traditional way is to sun dry the Daikon slices before pickling. Do you think that will work with the quick pickling method?
    - Randy
      
      I’m looking forward to giving this recipe a try. I hope for crunch though. lol
      
      Perhaps if you added your radishes to the pan you heated your pickling liquid in after you remove it from the heat. Just let it all cool off in there.
      
      If they still turn out to crunchy… then next time add them sooner and cook them for a few minutes.
      
      If they turn out too soft… then next time let the liquid cool off more before you add them.
    - Dani
      
      With traditional takuan it’s not necessarily the sun that changes the texture, but the fermentation that is changing the texture of the pickle. It’s that fermentation that gives it the yellow color and the strong smell as well, so it’s hard to completely replicate it without the bacteria to do the work for us.
      
      You can try adding the radish to the hot liquid right when you take it off the burner to let the heat break down a little bit of the texture, but you don’t want to actually cook them otherwise the structure of the fibers get be too soft. You can also try adding a bit more salt to pull out more water, or even just adding more pressure to the pickle while squeezing! I don’t always like squeezing them by hand, it can be hard to distribute pressure evenly, so you might find a Tsukemono Pickle Press to work better. It just takes a little experimentation. I like a crunchy pickle, so I’ve never tried to change it before, but I’d love to hear what works!
Ali R

Hi

I would like pickle a whole daikon so that I can cut long strips for my nori rolls. Does the above process apply? And do I keep them stored in the fridge during the whole pickling duration.

Thnx.
- Dani
  
  Yes, you can follow this process with a lot of different vegetables to make a good quick pickle. I suppose you could leave them out at room temperature while pickling, but I’ve always kept them in the fridge. Just make sure they’re sealed while sitting out to be safe!
  
  The only issue you have to keep in mind is the length of pickling time you want. For this method, I intend to eat them within a week or two, so I don’t stress about sterilization. If you want to pickle a whole lot of daikon at once and keep it for months before eating, you need to make sure your pickling jar is sterile, the vinegar boils long enough to kill any bacteria, and the jar is sealed tightly once the vinegar is added to prevent spoilage. It’s not hard, it just takes a little more effort.
  
  If, however, your goal is to make traditional pickled daikon with a yellow color, this is not going to be the right method to take. My pickles use salt and vinegar, whereas that type of pickle uses a rice bran mixture and sits for months to allow fermentation to do its thing. It does taste amazing, but the smell it gives off can be strong and length required to make it is not really practical for a home chef unless you have a good place to store it!
  - R Ali
    
    TQ for the response.
    
    I usually buy a whole danmuji. But l’ll try pickling strips of daikon next. Normally I pickle for several hours big red onion, bird eye chilli and carrot for the Vietnamese rolls. I roll them with salad leaves, poached chicken meat and mint or coriander.
    
    Now I can include strips of danmuji in my rolls too. Yum…
Simcha

I love Japanese food in general, but I go nuts for pickled radish. Unfortunately, the ones I find sold in Australia have a strong aftertaste of MSG and artificial sweetener. These look like the real thing I feasted on in Japan. I can’t wait to make them.

Thank you for taking the time to include great photos showing the process at every step of the way. You have made it easy for the rest of us!
Madox

How many days do these pickles last?
- Dani
  
  Since we didn’t go through the whole sterilizing/canning process, these aren’t meant to last too long. Kept in the fridge, they will last for about 2 weeks or so.
Odette Gotobed

I am salting the Daikon to make your Takuan. Do I store it out of fridge whilst it is maturing or in fridge? If Wnter I would put things outside . Please let me know . Thank you m__m. Odette .
- Dani
  
  You can do either, it just depends on how quickly you’re going to come back to them. Generally salting them in the fridge takes a little longer to pull out the water, but if you’re not able to work with them right away, that might be nice – salt them in the morning, press the water out in the evening. If you want to leave them out on the counter instead, just cover them while they’re sitting and they’ll be fine!
m

Would adding things like carrots and ginger work? Thanks
- Dani
  
  Definitely! Adding root vegetables are usually my favorite to mix in. I often add carrots, and celery every so often. I haven’t added ginger, but considering it has preservative properties like vinegar, it should still pickle well. I wouldn’t add too much though, because ginger can really permeate the taste over a few days.
http://www.marecipes.com Ma Recipes

I made Korean pickled Daikon and I think they are similar to the Japanese pickled Daikon. Please try my recipe http://www.marecipes.com/danmuji if you like pickles.
- Dani
  
  Thank you for sharing! They are very similar, I’m pretty sure one version is based on the other, but I’m not sure which one came first… but either way, they are quite delicious!
B_Kersey

This is wonderful and the flavor is fantastic. I add 2 tablespoons of pickled beet juice for a really interesting red color. Really looks good and taste great in sushi.
missing kitsune (missingkitsun

I’ve used this recipe several times now and just love it. I’ve also substituted diakon with cucumbers: peeled, add some minced garlic and dill and it’s made a wonderful, delicious pickle. LOVE it.
hannah

Do we pickle it in the fridge?
- http://otakufood.com/ Dani
  
  Yep! Since we’re not fully canning or preserving it, it’s best to keep it in the fridge to keep it safe.
  - hannah
    
    Thanks for your response! It turned out so good! How long would you say it keeps for (refrigerated)?
    - dani-chan
      
      I would say a week, maybe two max. It’s definitely not intended to keep for months, so I would just make enough for a week or so at a time. (If they last that long, I could eat the whole batch in one go!)
hannah

Great recipe! Highly recommend! I waited 3 days and it definitely tastes better the longer you wait. Used this in my homemade futomaki recipe.
The Morrigan

Excellent recipe! I tried a different one first, result was not good. These taste just like the ones in Japanese restaurants in Taiwan.