Watercress
Watercress is packed full of nutrients, so much so that it is thought that the ‘father of medicine’ Hippocrates used to grow watercress by his first hospital to use as treatment!
Nutrition
Watercress is a powerhouse of nutrients but to name a few are Vitamins A and K and Potassium. Potassium helps your body regulate your heartbeat and blood pressure.
Shopping Guide
When selecting bunches of watercress look for leaves that have a bright green colour and firm stems.
Storage
To store watercress, if it’s in a bag, just pop the bag in the fridge and use within a couple of days. If you bought a bunch, you can get it to last a few extra days by popping stalks-down into a glass of water.
Serving Suggestions
You can eat watercress raw or cooked – it’s great in salads, sandwiches, wilted in stir fries or one-pot dishes, served raw or cooked with a roast, added to soups and more!
Seasonality
Buying veg in season is not only great for the planet, it can be good for your wallet, too! Seasonal veg are often cheaper and frequently taste better, so can be a better time to try with a child as the often sweeter, riper taste is more enjoyable.
Coming In:
March
At Its Best:
April - September
Engage
Here are some of our favourite ways to engage kids with watercress:
Arts & Crafts
Start simple with some non-food based engagement. This is especially helpful for a fussier child or those with sensitivities around food.
For watercress, why not try making a veg landscape picture? Use a plate or baking tray to create an edible jungle or grassland or forest from the watercress leaves and some other veggies!
Science
Science allows for curiosity, play and hands-on experiments. It helps kids to become fascinated with veg – how it looks, reacts, smells, cooks and more. Finding fun and simple experiments to allow kids to play with their veg makes them curious about it and helps them approach it in a positive way.
Watercress is a perfect first veg to grow as it is so simple. Make it even more fun by growing watercress shapes: lay some paper towels over a tray or baking tray and place a few cookie cutters on top. Sprinkle or gently pour water over until the paper towels are wet. Sprinkle watercress seeds into the cookie cutter shapes on the wet paper towel. Watch them grow! You may need to sprinkle a little extra water every now and then, but within a week or two you should have some fun watercress shapes. Keep a video or written diary to see the changes over time.
Sensory
Sensory exploration can be a wonderful introduction to physically interacting with veg. Turn it into a positive, pressure-free experience by starting off with the golden rules of “You don’t need to try and you don’t need to like.” Reassuring a child that, while they have a chance to taste a veg, they don’t have to, and are not expected to like it if they do, can make them more happy to engage with it.
Watercress is great to explore by touch and sight. Maybe compare a few different salad leaves including watercress (you could buy a bag of mixed leaves for this). How do they look similar? How do they look different? If you can, getting a couple of crunchy types such as iceberg lettuce vs softer kinds like watercress make for a great experience exploring through sound (crunch when you bite or snap the veg), too. If your child feels up to tasting it, try it with a few different kinds of lettuce and rank from “spiciest” or “pepperiest” to mildest.
Kids in the Kitchen
Children who help to prep and cook veg are more likely to eat it. If you feel your child is ready to help and could benefit from it, keep the stress and mess to a minimum by choosing one simple task for them to do as part of the prep, meaning they can be involved and feel like the recipe is in part ‘theirs’, but also not make the process too much longer or more complicated.
For a younger child, why not show them how to wash and dry the watercress to serve with tea?
For an older child, it could be a great opportunity to teach them how to make a basic dressing that can go with any salad leaves! Mix ½ tsp mustard, 2 tablespoons vinegar and a good 6-8 tablespoons oil in a jar, screw the lid on tight and shake until combined. You can vary it up by replacing some or all of the vinegar with lemon or lime juice, the oil with yogurt or sour cream, or adding dried herbs or even chilli flakes. Let them kids pick what they want to add and make salad with dinner more appealing!
DOWNLOADS:
Use our Kitchen Ninja chart and videos to find simple ways for kids to help in the kitchen.
Your Food
Find your go-to meals in our family favourites section and see what veggies work best with them.
Find out how to add more veg to your suppers here.
Recipes
Serving
The moments before food is offered can be a perfect opportunity for engagement that can help make it more likely a child will eat it!
The first thing to do is remove the pressure. If the veg doesn’t get eaten, it’s not the end of the world. There will be other days, other dinners, other chances. Fun is key here – try not to worry about mess, perfect table manners, or playing with food. Instead, focus on making the process of getting the food to the plates, readying the table, and the actual eating relaxed.
The best principles for success here are the Three Rs (role modelling, rewarding, re-offering) which you can read about here.
But there is one more way you can serve for success, and that is giving your child a role. You don’t have to do this every time, just encourage them in their strengths through it when you can.
Here are some of our favourite ideas:
Design a menu
Come up with a silly name or story for a dish
Help with making a meal plan and choosing veg for dinners or snacks
Help to serve up the meal on dishes, lay the table or create a centrepiece to be involved in the physical ‘serving up’ process
The Wonderful World of Veg
Check out our vegepedia. When to buy in-season. How to store them to keep for longer. How to engage children with each veg, and simple ideas of how to prepare and cook them for maximum taste and minimum waste. Select a veg…