Watercress Recipes

About

Watercress (Nasturtium officinale) is one of the most widely consumed wild plants in the world. In the Brassica family, it has a mildly spicy flavor that intensifies throughout the season similar to mustard greens.

Lots of cress here, but it isn't at the best stage to harvest, but do you know why?

If you're new to watercress, make sure to take a look at The Forager's Guide to Watercress first.

Tried and True

Cress makes a great side dish. Here's a few favorites.

Easy Steamed Watercress |Steakhouse-Style Creamed Watercress with Jalepeno| Watercress Soup with Carrots

Confusing Names

Watercress is only one of many plants whose common name includes
"cress". There's upland cress, bittercress, penny cress, and so on. All of these plants are in the same family, but many are bitter and not interchangeable in recipes with the real deal.

Bittercress.

Safety

As it grows in the water, cress require more caution than plants you harvest from the garden.

Mostly that means not eating the plant raw to avoid liver fluke, and only harvesting  from above the waterline from areas you know are clean.

The good news is that, for most purposes, you can make watercress safe to eat by simply cooking it.

Cooking

Most people think of the plant as a garnish but foragers have access to incredible quantities of the plant. Use it as a cooked green anywhere you'd use spinach.

It's great as a cooked vegetable. One of my favorite things is stir-fried with garlic and ginger.

A simple soup with carrots and fresh cress.

One of the easiest  ways to cook it is simply steamed until tender, with a little butter and salt and the table. As you'll see, there's lots of delicious things you can do with it.