Watercress & Pepita Salad

This is a delicious salad recipe from one of our customers.  Cress has a very strong peppery taste, but the dressing on this salad compliments it well.  We really enjoyed it.  We also tried using a sweet red wine vinegar dressing, but the sweetness seemed to make the cress stand out too much.

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It's easy to feel extremely healthy consuming this salad!!

Watercress & Pepita Salad

Serves 6

1/3 cup toasted pepitas

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

1/2 tsp ground cumin

3 tbsp olive oil

coarse salt & pepper

1-1/2 lb watercress, tough stems removed

In a large bowl, combine vinegar & cumin.  Whisk in oil.  Season with salt & pepper. (Dressing will keep 2 days covered in the refrigerator.)  Mix with cress & top with pepitas.

Tuna & Watercress Quiche

Watercress surfaces again!  Someone at market told me about ANDI scoring: Aggregate Nutritional Density Index.  Foods are scored from 1 to 1000 according to their nutritional density.  There are three foods (ie, Superfoods) that score a perfect 1000.  Can you guess them? (I'll post it at the bottom.)

After learning its terrific nutritional value, I decided to explore more watercress dishes.  I checked out the website I mentioned in a previous post (watercress.co.uk).  Though fresh watercress is quite strong-flavored, when cooked the flavor mixes in well.  (Please note, the full nutritional value comes when it is eaten raw.  Nothing wrong with tossing it in your salad!)  This recipe was a nice, elegant twist.  Freddie's response: This is very British.  And he can say that since he is 1/2 English!  We would like to try it again using salmon.

Tuna & Watercress Quiche

(adapted by yours truly)

4 oz (a little less than 1 cup) flour

1 oz Parmesan cheese, grated

2 oz (1/2 stick) butter, cubed & softened

1/3 cup watercress packed, finely chopped

2 egg

1 cup milk or cream

5 oz can tuna, drained

1 tbsp fresh dill, chopped

Preheat oven to 400F.  Rub flour, chesse & butter together.  Bind with a little cold water. (I used maybe a scant tablespoon.  Add little by little until you can work with the dough.)  Roll out & line the bottom of 4 individual flan dishes.  Mix cress, egg & cream.  Divide tuna amongst flan dishes.  Sprinkle with dill, salt & pepper.  Pour egg mixture into each.  Do not be afraid to pour clear to the top.  Place dishes on cookie sheet.  Bake 25-30 minutes until lightly browned & set.

ANSWER:  Watercress, Kale & Mustard/Turnip/Collard greens.  Baby Bok Choy comes 4th, scoring 824.
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/healthy-eating/health-starts-here/resources-and-tools/top-ten-andi-scores#greenvegetables

Watercress Soup

One of our British customers has given us fabulous ideas for watercress.  One website she suggested was watercress.co.uk   A friend of hers wrote a cookbook, The Ballymaloe Cookbook.  In it is a perfect watercress soup recipe.  We have made it -- eaten it both hot & cold.  We have used the traditional cress:

And, the upland cress variety:

The upland has a much more peppery taste & I would suggest it for this recipe.

Watercress Soup

2 oz butter (1/2 stick)

1 cup chopped onions

1 cup chopped potato

5 cups chopped watercress

2-1/2 cups water

2-1/2 cups creamy milk

1 egg yolk

1 tbsp thick cream

salt & pepper

Melt butter in a heavy saucepan.  When it foams add potatoes & onions & turn them until well coated.  Sprinkle with salt & pepper.  cover & sweat on a gentle heat for 10 minutes.  Add the watercress, water & milk.  Boil until soft.  Liquidize (we put ours in a food processor).  Do not overcook or vegetables will lose their flavor.  Beat in the thick cream mixed with the egg yolk just before serving.  It must not boil again, or the yolk will curdle.  Garnish: a spoon of whipped cream & a watercress leaf.

NOTE:  In the summer, the soup is super chilled!



*** Starring: Watercress ***

Watercress is our new crop.  Several customers were asking for it so thanks to them, we decided to give it a go.  We have enjoyed it very much in our sandwiches.  The peppery taste is very slight when combined with all of the fixings.  We love the crunch and freshness that it brings to the sandwich.

Watercress goes well mixed in salads.  Like Arugula, it gives some bites a bit of a punch.  We have also tried Watercress Soup, a potato based soup.  It is delicious and on a hot summer day, we liked it best chilled.

Watercress is known to be one of the Superfoods, ranked right up with Kale.  We grow two varieties.  The one above is the traditional variety that is most familiar.  The following picture (taken from www.amazon.com) is the other variety we grow.  It is not for the faint of heart!  Its peppery taste lingers in your mouth.