Watercress, a.k.a. Nasturtium officinale You’ve probably heard of it, maybe even seen it in a nice grocery store, but, if you’re unfamiliar with harvesting your own watercress or cooking with it in general, I hope I can share a couple points to help you enjoy it.
Watercress is one of the building block plants of easy foraging. Along with nettles, lamb’s quarters and amaranth, it forms the foundation of the wild salad mixture that I’ve served in restaurants for a number of years now, it’s relatively easy to find and identify, tastes great, lasts in the fridge and doesn’t quickly wilt if handled properly.
Before I hopefully inspire you to try some or propagate some in your nearby pond, know that watercress can be a bit invasive, and will take over streams and ponds. It was probably brought over by Europeans as a food plant, and it’s a wonderful food plant, but before you inoculate a stream near you by plopping some in, know that it will spread, which can be a good and bad thing depending on who you are, and where you are.
Watercress has a strong flavor, so you can pair it with rich things, like a French salad of celery root and grated cheese.
Whats special about it?
Watercress is prized for it’s spicy, brassica flavor that may remind you of mustard greens, but It really shines for the speed and bountiful harvest that a single patch and a scissors can provide. In just a few clips of a scissors, you can fill a cooler and harvest enough food to last a good period of time. The flavor is going to be reminiscent of other plants in the mustard family: spicy hot, a bit like horseradish or radishes, with a heat increases in the summer as the plants get more sun. Early in the year, they’ll be mild and enjoyable by everyone, and there’s just about nothing better than a steaming hot, tender pile of cooked watercress with lemon and a knob of butter. Even in the height of the growing season, when raw cress is spicy hot, cooked watercress still makes a mild tasting, delicious vegetable, just cook the stems a bit longer to make them tender.
Cook that watercress!
I’m amazed at how many people I talk to that have gathered cress for years have never thought of cooking it. I love a good salad any time of the year, but, safety of eating raw cress aside, I harvest watercress in large amounts specifically so I can cook it, since it’s easier to eat large quantities cooked than it is raw. Consume mass quanitites!
A quick steam is my favorite way to enjoy this plant, with a good glob of butter, salt and lemon at the end.
Simple Quick-Steamed Watercress
Safety, Pollution, and Liver Fluke
Whether you’re picking in a spring or creek, a pond, or wherever else, you need to know about the water you’re picking it from, and a few other things. If you’re new to picking watercress, hands down the most important thing in my view, is knowing that the water is clean. Even in situations where you know the water is good, like my private spring that’s pictured here, nature happens: keep your eyes peeled for decomposing animals, or other dead things floating in the water.
I’m lucky, since I can easily inspect the entire pond while I’m harvesting, If you pick from a flowing stream, things can be more difficult to sniff out, the rotting beaver carcass or hog farm may be out of sight, up stream. Know where you’re picking from, and inspect it before you harvest. Regarding liver fluke specifically (a nasty thing) I’ve heard that it’s probably too cold for them to thrive in cold-ish places where I harvest in Minnesota and Wisconsin, but to be safe, you can always cook your cress.
Now that I’ve scared you (not my intention) here’s some other helpful bullets:
- When in doubt, cook your watercress, which will kill bacteria and parasites, especially liver fluke. Cooking also makes it easier to eat large amounts of the greens you love.
- Always wash your watercress in cold water before eating, especially if it was touching the water. Immersing the cress in cold water also refreshes it and makes it come back to life, an important trick to have around if it was purchased or a bit wilted.
- Pick watercress from above the water, which is going to be a lot easier to clean, safer, as well as more attractive on the plate. The only time I don’t do this is in the Winter, which I only do occasionally–and I cook it to sterilize it.
You never know who has been in the watercress pond, or what they’ve done in there, so I pick watercress from above the water line.
Harvesting
I put some waders on and get into the spring, about waist height with a plastic cooler and a scissors. Why a cooler? Because it floats. If I don’t have a cooler, I might use a restaurant fish box, at home, you could use something like a, shallow, thin, plastic tub, something like an underbed box. But, even if all you have is a hand or an extra shirt, you’ll be fine. I use a long scissors since it’s very efficient, and keeps the quality of the greens I want to serve more than cutting with a knife, which can bruise the greens.
Watercress has a natural affinity for orange foods with carotene, as well as citrus.
Another play on the carrot-orange-green combo. Simple watercress soup is a classic.
Harvesting the flowers
If you want to harvest the flowers for a garnish, use a shallow plastic container and use it strictly for flowers, instead of lumping them in with the rest and trying to fish them out later, flowers are more delicate, and getting jostled around can make them spoil faster. Store the flowers in a container or bag with a damp cloth or towel.
I love using watercress as a garnish for meat or fish, much better than microgreens.
Tips for serving and general use
Wash your watercress in cold water for a few minutes, or longer if it’s wilted or has been in a warm car on a ride back to your kitchen, then spin dry in a salad spinner. Alternately lift the greens out of the water and shake gently, then roll up in a light towel like a jelly roll, refrigerate until the towel has soaked up the water from the greens, about 15 minutes.
When you’re serving watercress, you can get a little more creative with the flavors than with something very mild like romaine, since watercress is a little spicy, it can stand up to some stronger flavors, although a little lemon juice, good olive oil, and a pinch of salt is usually all I put on mine, a little anchovy vinaigrette and parmesan is great for a watercress Caesar.
Watercress harvested in the winter will need to be well washed since they’ll be growing directly in the water. The stems will be discarded, and I only use the top clusters. I also cook it if I pick it growing on the water.
Harvesting watercress in the Winter?
Absolutely! Even in the cold weather climate where I live in Minnesota, I can harvest watercress from the private, bubbling spring I have access to. It will have a higher proportion of stem to leaves in the winter, and I usually cook it since it’s below water, but it’s still water cress, and it’s delicious.
Cooked, watercress can be a great addition to a lot of dishes. Pictured is some sauteed halibut cheeks, heirloom potatoes and wild peppermint.
Serving Ideas:
- Wilt large amounts just like any other leafy green!
- Watercress isn’t only for enjoying raw, toss chopped cress into soups and stews, too, just make sure to give it a good chop so the stems don’t hang all over your spoon.
- One of my favorite ways to have it is a ham sandwich, a really nice ham sandwich, with plenty of butter or mayo.
- Use it to top hot food, just as you would arugula: on top of flatbread, pizza, pasta, anything. Dress it with a little olive oil, lemon and a pinch of salt and put it on everything. The contrast of hot and cold is really nice.
- The spicy flavor of cress is particularly good with sweet things too, like on top of beet salads, or mixed with orange segments and some nice goat cheese.
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Thanks for the great article! I’ve never thought to cook watercress! I live in southern WI and stopped foraging watercress a few years ago when I was made aware of liver fluke — now I’m back in the game!
Great article! I was watching to see if you mentioned water quality. Hats off for the liver fluke warning! I live in an urban area and our stream is choked with watercress, cattail, and blackberries that I would love to harvest (being a N. Michigan transplant) but I know that water plants, especially cattails, absorb chemicals and heavy metals from urban run-off. In fact, constructed wetlands function to clean run up water because plants sequester toxic substances in their tissues. Just wanted to add that, good foraging!
Hello I have loads of watercress growing in my pond and stream. I picked a large bunch but found it had quite a few tiny, little snails on the leaves. The water is very clear and the watercress is growing incredibly well. Can I still use it? How do I get rid of the snails apart from going over every leaf by hand.
Some critters are natural. Soak the cress in a deep bowl or a sink, jostling it around a bit, then spin it dry, and cook if you prefer. Washing should remove them.