Skip to main content
Main

Watercress, Boiled

Boiled watercress is cooked briefly in salted water and served immediately or added to soups.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Watercress, Boiled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Rinse the watercress thoroughly in plenty of water with a little salt to remove any dirt or animal matter.

  2. Bring a pot of water to a boil.

Cook and serve

  1. Add the watercress to the boiling water and cook for a short time until tender.

  2. Drain the watercress and serve immediately, or add it to soups or other green purees.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Watercress
Is the vegetable being cooked, so it softens and becomes tender in the boiling water.

The step that matters

Cook for a short time only. Watercress is delicate and softens quickly in boiling water. Overcooking makes it limp and dull in colour, so it should be drained as soon as it is tender.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes