A couple months ago I read an article about watercress and how it was just as potent a super food as kale, yet without the notoriety.

The article actually cited more than one way in which watercress was more beneficial than kale. I was intrigued. I’ve had watercress before, but I’ve never really worked with it at home.

Not long after the article, I was shopping at my local market and I noticed a beautiful bunch of watercress. I thought, now is the time to give this stuff a shot. And why not? I love working with different greens and am always looking for new ways to create healthy dishes that are interesting.

I’ve since been using watercress a lot more in my salads. I even came across some sprouts at my local co-op and used those as a spicy accent in a couple different dishes.

Watercress doesn’t generally have a very strong flavor, and the leaves hold up well. The texture of watercress really makes it lovely to work with, especially for salads. It is not bitter like other greens either, so you will probably have an easier time getting it down the hatch raw.

One of my favorite watercress creations is a salad I made with shaved fennel and golden beets for Easter. I didn’t really write down the recipe, so I’m going from memory, but it’s just a salad and great salads are really about proportions and a knock-out dressing. I think this should hit the mark on both.

 

For the salad:

1 bulb fennel finely chopped

1 bunch watercress cleaned and chopped

1 1/2 cups roasted golden beets, chopped

1/2 cup fresh parsley or cilantro, chopped

1/2 cup roasted almonds, chopped

 

For the dressing:

4 ounces extra virgin olive oil

Juice of 1 blood orange

1 ounce white wine vinegar

1 teaspoon Batti Becco seasoning salt

 

To make the salad:

1. Place all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and toss well with tongs or clean hands.

 

To make the dressing:

1. Place all ingredients in a mason jar and shake well until fully emulsified.

2. Drizzle a little but over salad, toss, repeat until lightly dressed.

3. Serve right away.

COOK’S NOTE: I roast and salt my own almonds by tossing them in a little bit of EVOO and seasoning salt and baking for about 10 minutes.

Cilantro actually pairs really well with watercress, so I suggest using that in this recipe. I didn’t use it on Easter because one of my friends I was celebrating with had an aversion.

 

Kat Barry, a St. Joseph, Michigan native, is owner of Kat’s Hot Cakes vegan catering, and co author of “The New Chicago Diner Cookbook: Meat Free Recipes from America’s Veggie Diner.” She also develops recipes for eHow.com, where you can find over 30 of her vegan instructional cooking videos. She is also a certified yoga instructor. Kat currently resides in Chicago, and in her free time she enjoys practicing yoga, sampling local spirits, listening to live music, and getting outdoors. Follow @katshotcakes on twitter. Kat can be reached via email at: kat@katshotcakes.com.