Watercress is among the oldest known plants consumed by humans, and claims for its medicinal powers are almost as ancient. Hippocrates grew it near his hospital for medicinal purposes; Pliny the Elder favoured it as a remedy for anxiety and coughs. At one time or another its peppery leaves have been used as old folk remedies to treat fever, scurvy, intestinal worms and baldness.
Even now, watercress maintains a reputation as a nutrient-rich superfood – the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has ranked it number 1 (with a perfect score of 100) on a list of “powerhouse” fruits and vegetables, and with good reason: it’s rich in vitamins C, K and A and antioxidants.
It does not, however, have a reputation as a versatile culinary ingredient; it’s probably best known as a soup base or a second-tier salad component. Watercress is easy to grow but highly perishable – widespread commercial distribution had to wait until the advent of the railways – and these days it seems rather less easy to come by than the decidedly blander, but much sturdier, rocket.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Here are 17 recipes using watercress – and only the first three are soups.
Soups
Of course there is nothing not to like about a traditional watercress soup, and Felicity Cloake’s well-considered version is a very good starting point, simple and straightforward: just watercress, onion, milk, cream, butter, salt and flour. The leaves are plunged first into boiling water and then into ice water to preserve their bright green colour.
Raymond Blanc’s watercress soup uses leeks, a potato and a bit of spinach; Margot Henderson’s take features garlic, dashi made with konbu seaweed, and short-grain rice to thicken it.
Risotto
This mussel risotto uses the same ice-water technique to retain the intense green of the watercress, which is subsequently pureed and only stirred in towards the end of cooking.
Salads
Almost any salad can be improved by the addition of a bit of watercress, but its mustardy bite is a great foil for particular flavours. Yotam Ottolenghi puts it together with lentils, asparagus and pecorino. John Torode combines watercress with apples and thinly sliced goose in a dijon vinaigrette, a recipe he says is a perfect solution to the problem of leftover goose, “which is sometimes a difficult meat to use up”.
This salad, from Love and Lemons, mixes watercress with fennel, orange segments, mozzarella, avocado and pistachio nuts. A still more intriguing, even mildly alarming combination is presented in Claire Thompson’s watercress, clotted cream and strawberry salad. You should be warned that it also contains sliced shallots and a sugary hazelnut brittle. The contrast of sweet and sharp is wholly intentional, even if it sounds like the result of a rear end collision en route to a picnic.
Tarts and Bubble and Squeak
Watercress can offer a more refined alternative to a standard vegetable ingredient, using it where you might otherwise use spinach in, say, Angela Hartnett’s watercress and goat’s cheese tart or in place of cabbage in Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s watercress bubble and squeak.
Pasta and Pesto
It’s also possible to make a kind of pesto out of watercress, with hazelnuts and parmesan, in the case of Florence Knight’s tagliatelle. Tom Hunt offers a version so off piste – hemp seed, watercress, orange and blue cheese – that he puts “pesto” in inverted commas.
Tempura and Sauces
You can make watercress mayonnaise or tzatziki (here served with lamb). Watercress can even be fried in tempura batter – an idea, this recipe claims, that originated with the arrival of Japanese immigrants in Hawaii some years before watercress was known in Japan.
Desserts
Finally, two desserts from watercress.co.uk, a hotbed of watercress recipe innovation brought to you by the Watercress Company growers. First, a watercress sorbet made with granny smith apples, sugar and lemon juice, and then to finish some watercress and vanilla cake. The latter might seem at first glance like an ordinary vanilla sponge with 125g of chopped watercress in it, but that would be to overlook its powerful health properties.
