World’s Best Watercress Soup
There are few things better on a cold, winter’s day than a bowl or mug of delicious soup and watercress is arguably the most delicious and so simple! The chance to blend together some of nature’s finest seasonal goodies into a warming, wholesome dish that can be served in a bowl or poured into a mug to warm the hands as well as the heart. Adding watercress near the end of cooking delivers on nutrients as well as flavour. The mix of nutrients and phytochemicals in watercress make it a valuable food throughout life, as part of a healthy diet and lifestyle.
Watercress soup has always been a firm favourite with many a celebrity chef coming up with their own version of the classic: Mary Berry, Raymond Blanc, Gordon Ramsey to name a few, not to mention Princess Diana and Liz Hurley who found it crucial in keeping her hourglass figure. The Watercress Company even has a Watercress Soup Diet guaranteed to help you drop the pounds as it’s the #1 nutrient dense vegetable based on calories.
Classic Watercress Soup
Scan the internet and you’ll easily find any number of recipes that use watercress as a base for a tasty, extremely healthy soup. Here are some of our favourites including one from Italy and one from New Zealand to show watercress soup’s international appeal. One thing they all share is that brilliant vibrant green colour, bright enough to light up the dark days of winter.
Michelin star chef Stephen Harris shares his Watercress Soup with an Oyster; guaranteed to put a smile on your face! In a recent paper published by the Journal of World Psychiatry scientists came up with a list of foods that are ‘the most dense sources of nutrients to play a role in the prevention and recovery from depressive disorders.’ In their Antidepressant Food Scale watercress scored highest out of both plant and animal sources while oysters were the highest scoring non-plant source. A Happy soup - who could ask for more!
Enjoy the crunch of radish contrasting with the smoothness of the soup in this delicious Watercress and Radish creation from Beverley Hicks.
Next up a delicious Spinach and Watercress Soup from the grande dame of Italian cooking, Anna del Conte. The Italians know a thing or two about healthy eating with the Mediterranean diet and here are two of the most healthy vegetables around combined into a superfood delight!
Sam Mannering shows how it’s made ‘down-under’ with a Watercress & Kumara Soup. Known elsewhere in the world as sweet potatoes, kumara replace the standard white potato used in classic watercress recipes to add extra sweetness.
There are hundreds more varieties of watercress soup out there! If you’d like to share your family recipe we’d love to hear from you. Meanwhile, for inspiration take a look at some of the soups our development chef has come up with.