This simple watercress salad is full of contemporary peppery watercress, crunchy radishes, and hard-boiled eggs and tossed in a easy selfmade garlicky dressing.
This publish comprises affiliate hyperlinks.
Why We Love This Recipe For Easy Watercress Salad
Right here at Wholesome Seasonal Recipes, it’s no secret that we love a great salad. And whereas we love the normal salads that grace virtually each desk, like a great traditional Caesar Salad, Greek Salad or Backyard Salad. However typically, we wish to spice issues up!
On this tremendous simple springtime recipe, we swap out traditional lettuce greens for a bunch of peppery watercress, combine in crisp radishes, and creamy hard-boiled eggs, then toss it with a easy selfmade garlicky French dressing. One factor is for positive, this mild and refreshing salad is bursting with taste.
And this wholesome aspect is the right complement to virtually any dish which suggests it’ll rapidly make its method into your loved ones’s weekly weeknight menu rotation.
Recipe Highlights
- Made with nutrient-dense spicy watercress
- Makes use of a handful of components, most of which you most likely have already got available
- Comes collectively in simply 20 minutes
- Straightforward to customise and goes with virtually any predominant dish you possibly can consider!
Watercress 101
- What’s Watercress?: Watercress is a low-calorie, nutrient-rich, darkish, leafy aquatic inexperienced.
- What does it style like?: peppery, minerally much like radish or horseradish
- Are you able to eat it uncooked? We prefer it greatest uncooked as cooking it causes it to wild significantly and it loses most of its peppery chunk when it’s cooked.
- What To Do With Watercress: Cress may be eaten uncooked or cooked; nevertheless, we desire it greatest when loved uncooked as cooking causes it to wilt significantly and it loses most of its iconic peppery chunk. Cress is a traditional accompaniment to steak (try this steak with watercress salad recipe.) Additionally it is good paired different meat dishes. Watercress soup is one other conventional preparation. See this Chinese language Watercress and Pork Soup for instance. We additionally like Watercress and Egg Sandwiches.
- When is watercress in season?: Watercress is an aquatic plant that normally is harvested within the spring; nevertheless, it may be grown and loved year-round in an indoor, vertical hydroponic backyard.
- Different Sorts of Cress: There are different frequent cress vegetation in addition to the frequent hollow-stemmed plant referred to as watercress. Examples are backyard cress and upland cress (which is grown hydroponically and a well-liked CSA merchandise in early spring.) These numerous cress varieties can all be used interchangeably and are good substitute greens for watercress. Upland Cress, has the identical vitamins and peppery notes as watercress however is thinner, extra tender, and normally bought with its roots nonetheless intact.
Key Elements for this Watercress Recipe
- Watercress: Buy 2 bunches which have massive, darkish inexperienced, spherical leaves whereas bypassing any cress that’s yellowing or wilting. You can too purchase bagged cress. You’ll want eight cups of cleaned watercress for this salad. Make sure to wash and spin dry earlier than use after which break into bite-sized items.
- Radishes: Collect a bunch of agency radishes with the greens nonetheless intact. Pink radishes, backyard radishes, French Breakfast, watermelon radish, Easter, and even Spanish all can be utilized interchangeably on this salad. Ultimately of the summer season you possibly can sub in one other crisp veggie or skinny slices of apple.
- Exhausting-Boiled Egg: Creamy onerous boiled egg is a traditional foil for peppery watercress.
- White Wine Vinegar: Used to assist brighten up the deep, spicy notes of the dressing whereas not overpowering the dish with a sturdy vinegar taste. Apple cider vinegar can be a fantastic substitute if that’s what you have got available or would like to make use of.
- Dijon Mustard: This sort of mustard has a definite spiciness that we really feel pairs superbly with the opposite peppery parts of this salad! Nevertheless, a brown deli mustard can be a scrumptious substitute since it’ll have a gentle peppery mustard taste that can praise the cress and radish too.
- Kitchen Staples: We advocate utilizing additional virgin olive oil when making the dressing as it’ll add one other layer of peppery notes to this easy salad. Additionally, you will want salt, pepper and garlic.
Step By Step Directions To Make This Cress Salad
Step 1: Make the Dressing
In a medium bowl mix garlic, vinegar, Dijon, salt, and pepper. Then, steadily whisk in olive oil.
Step 2: Costume the Salad
In a big salad bowl, mix the watercress and radishes. Drizzle selfmade dressing over the salad and toss to coat. Style and add extra dressing if desired. High with a hard-boiled egg if utilizing. Serve instantly and revel in!
Tip: To make good hard-boiled eggs, comply with these 6 simple steps:
- Place eggs within the backside of a big saucepan. Cowl generously with faucet water.
- Place over excessive warmth and produce to a boil. Boil for 1 minute.
- Cowl and take away the pan from the warmth. Let the eggs sit in boiling scorching water for 10 minutes.
- In the meantime, arrange a bowl of ice water.
- Drain the eggs and switch them to ice water. Let cool for one to 2 minutes.
- Then crack and peel underneath operating faucet water.
FAQs and Skilled Suggestions
Substitution For Watercress
Watercress has a novel peppery taste that’s much like radish or horseradish. So, for those who don’t have watercress available or can’t discover it on the native grocer, any peppery inexperienced, comparable to arugula, radish sprouts, upland cress, or child mustard can be tasty substitutes.
Make Forward
Whereas a dressed and tossed salad doesn’t hold, every element may be prepped and saved separate as much as 1 day upfront within the fridge. When able to eat, convey the dressing to room temperature, particularly if it has change into stable within the fridge, costume, toss, and revel in!
Variations To Attempt
Whereas we discover this easy watercress salad scrumptious as is, any of those simple variations can boost this recipe:
- Not a fan of eggs? No drawback! Rather than eggs, we love swapping in 1 ounce of blue cheese, buttery pecorino, creamy goat cheese, or salty feta.
- Rather than radish, be at liberty to make use of one other veggie, like candy cherry tomatoes in the summertime or sliced tart inexperienced apples or pears within the fall.
- Throughout the winter months garnish with segmented oranges and shaved fennel and serve alongside salmon for a flavorful full meal.
- High with nuts, toasted almonds, or spiced nuts for a crunchy complement to the peppery cress
- Change up the dressing and prime with a tangy horseradish ranch, maple ranch dressing, tarragon dressing or a lemon French dressing.
Serving Ideas
- This simple watercress salad is the right aspect dish for a hearty grilled steak, prime rib, roasted rooster, or honey glazed ham.
- Serve this salad as an accompaniment to a grilled cheese sandwiches, chickpea salad sandwiches, or tuna melts.
- In case you’re simply within the temper for a salad however would like one thing extra substantial, prime it off with a protein like canned tuna, sliced steak, or seared salmon filet for a fast and simple lunch or dinner.
This watercress salad with garlicky dressing and hard-boiled eggs is the right aspect salad for a meal shared with household. Right here’s a Sunday Supper menu suggestion:
Extra Salad Recipes To Attempt
Thanks a lot for studying! If you’re new right here, you might have considered trying to join my e-mail e-newsletter to get a free weekly menu plan and the most recent recipes proper to your inbox. In case you make this recipe, please come again and go away a star score and evaluation. I might love to listen to what you thought!
Completely happy Cooking! ~Katie
Description
This simple and contemporary watercress salad is full of peppery watercress, crunchy radishes, and savory hard-boiled eggs and tossed in a easy selfmade garlicky dressing for one scrumptious aspect or mild entrée salad.
- 8 cups watercress, cleaned and damaged into bite-size sprigs (about 2 massive bunches)
- ½ cup sliced radishes
- 1 clove garlic, finely minced
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
- 1 ½ teaspoons Dijon mustard
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- Freshly floor pepper, to style
- 1/3 cup additional virgin olive oil
- Optionally available 2 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and chopped
- Mix watercress and radishes in a big salad bowl.
- Whisk garlic, vinegar, Dijon, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl. Progressively whisk in olive oil.
- Drizzle dressing over the salad, to style, and toss to coat. Style and add extra dressing if desired. Divide amongst 4 plates. High with egg if utilizing. Serve instantly.
Notes
Ingredient Observe: Hydroponic watercress and uplands cress are extra tender than mature watercress and bought in bunches so it wilts extra readily. These extra tender cress varieties want much less dressing, so we recommend dressing the salad somewhat at a time. Style as you go.
Make Forward: The dressing may be made, the eggs boiled, radishes chopped, and greens washed and chopped as much as 1 day forward. Costume and toss simply earlier than serving.
To Exhausting-Boil Eggs:
- Place eggs within the backside of a big saucepan. Cowl generously with faucet water.
- Place over excessive warmth and produce to a boil. Boil for 1 minute.
- Cowl and take away the pan from the warmth. Let the eggs sit in boiling scorching water for 10 minutes.
- In the meantime, arrange a bowl of ice water.
- Drain the eggs and switch the eggs to the ice water. Let cool for one to 2 minutes.
- Then crack and peel underneath operating faucet water.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Prepare dinner Time: quarter-hour
- Class: Salad
- Technique: No Prepare dinner
- Delicacies: American
Diet
- Serving Dimension: 2 cups
- Energy: 215
- Sugar: 1 g
- Fats: 21 g
- Carbohydrates: 3 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 5 g
Key phrases: cress salad, watercress salad, salad cress
In regards to the Creator
Katie Webster
Katie Webster studied artwork and pictures at Skidmore School and is a graduate of the New England Culinary Institute. She has been an expert recipe developer since 2001 when she first began working within the take a look at kitchen at EatingWell journal. Her recipes have been featured in quite a few magazines together with Form, Health, Mother and father and a number of other Edible Communities publications amongst others. Her cookbook, Maple {Quirk Books} was printed in 2015. She launched Wholesome Seasonal Recipes in 2009. She lives in Vermont along with her husband, two teenage daughters and two yellow labs. In her free time, you’ll find her on the gymnasium, cooking, stacking firewood, making maple syrup, and tending to her overgrown perennial backyard.
