I'm looking for a website on watercress. I have found several, but........?

Question

I'm trying to find out how to prepare it fresh out of the pond. I want to know what part is ok to eat. Do you pull it out from the roots or just the top?

Any info. will be helpful!

Thanks :-)

Answer 1

you want to try to leave the roots in, but sometimes that's impossible. you can eat all (except the roots), just wash it good, toss it into a salad, or make it the salad, or eat it in a sandwich the way you would eat lettuce, it's very good for the kidneys, i love it, it's got a real good peppery bite to it, anyway i hope this helps, enjoy.

Answer 2

We have 2 different type of watercress here in Asian.  One type come in a small bundle - no roots, so we just wash or cut into small section.  The other is you will find little white root from the side, top to bottom, where we have to cut it off.  We don't see the root.

Then, i like to use it to make a quick clear soup and it is lovely.  The normal style is cook till the watercress turn yellowish which i do not like.

here my recipes with picture:

http://crystalbyblog.blogspot.com/2007/0...

http://crystalbyblog.blogspot.com/2007/1...

: )

Answer 3

Here - this is what I found...

Harvesting is as simple as taking a few cuttings of the leaves. You’ll see the mature plants sending runners off the mother plant and starting to mound up. Trim these older plants back to 4 inches and they’ll leaf out again. The runners of this rapidly growing watercress can be allowed to grow and be harvested.

http://www.simplegiftsfarm.com/watercres...

If you google "growing watercress" you will find a lot of links that talk of growing and harvesting it. I hope that helps!

Answer 4

The stems are pretty brittle, so they should snap off easily.  Try to leave the roots, but this can be difficult.  Sometimes watercress forms floating mats.

It's best to get watercress from natural sources with flowing water.  The species itself is usually an indicator of good water quality, but a flowing source can reduce the amount of things that should be rinsed out before cooking.  Just yesterday I harvested a bunch from a flowing sandy creek where the aerial parts were free-standing.  Bonus!

A famous Chinese dish is lightly steamed watercress with minced garlic, served as a vegetable.  If you're handy with chopsticks, you can eat it like noodles.