Watercress soup
Watercress soup
When sun starts shining and the weather warms up, I personally like to eat lighter food, This soup is quick and easy to make it is quintessentially British, and often forgotten about.
Watercress is in season between April and October, it has quite a few heal benefits, It is an extremely good antioxidant, not only that it's rich in vitamin C which supports the immune system, so it is especially good if you have injuries or recovering from surgery.
When I was a child ate watercress a lot, but it seems to have lost its popularity over the years. However, this flavoursome slightly peppery soup is ideal to eat at this time of year. You could serve this soup hot or make it into a chilled summer soup.
Ingredients serves 6
approximately 8 ounces 225 grammes which is around 3 bunches of watercress that is being watched taken off the stalk and chopped
14 oz or 400 grammes of leaks cleaned and finally chopped
1lb8oz or 700grms potatoes peeled diced quite small and put in water to stop them going browned
1.75 litres or three pints a vegetable stock
half a teaspoon of sea salt
half a teaspoon of freshly milled black pepper
4 tablespoons of plant based yoghurt, cream, or creme fresh
A pinch of nutmeg
the juice of quarter of a lemon
15 mil or one tablespoon of olive oil
3 cloves of garlic peeled and chopped,
Method
Heat the oil in a heavy bottom pan, turn the heat down to medium and sauté the leeks and garlic, till they are soft and transparent this takes about 8 minutes, add the potatoes and the vegetable stock, plus the watercress, reserving a few leaves for decoration when serving cook together for approximately 10 minutes on a medium heat with a lid over the pan.
Remove the pan from the heat and using a stick blender or hand blender process your soup until it's smooth, then adjust the seasoning by adding the lemon juice salt pepper and a pinch of nutmeg.
When serving add a swirl of your plant based cream or yoghurt and a couple of sprigs of watercress.
If you're serving this hot then serve with good homemade oh crusty bread, if you're serving this is a chilled soup serve it from the fridge over ice.