Watercress Soup

Ingredients

• a pint of haricots
• chopped watercress
• an onion also chopped
• a tablespoonful of cream
• salt and pepper to season it well

Method

1. 1

   Soak haricot beans overnight, then boil until they can be rubbed through a sieve.

2. 2

   Cook watercress and onion in butter.

3. 3

   Add boiling water to haricot puree to achieve cream consistency, then stir in watercress and season before serving.

As published

This recipe was extracted from The profession of cookery, from a French point of view (1894) by Lucy H. Yates, page 46. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

Watercress Soup is undreamt of by many people, but it is simple and nourishing, and meets with the approbation of all who try it. As a salad, too, it is much appreciated, either alone or with lettuce, and as a sauce to accom- pany roast mutton it is frequently used in French houses. Chopped small and laid be- tween thin slices of bread and butter for sand- wiches, it is getting to be much favoured at the afternoon tea-table. Be it remembered, however, that although watercress is most valuable as a medicine, beingr a gentle stimulant, and strengthening to the nerves, yet from the nature of its growth it requires most careful cleansing, or we may imbibe more harmful properties than we gain good from eating it. The expressed juice of fresh watercress taken by a teaspoonful at a time, has been found in- valuable in cases of throat disease. The Ger- 138 SOME LITTLE USED VEGETABLES. man pliysiciau, Haller, said tliat he liad seen patients in deep decline cured by Hying almost entirely on tliis plant. The best specimens are those with the bronzed leaves. During the winter and early spring is perhaps the best season for water- cress, but they are good and acceptable all the year round. Full directions for making the watercress soup will be found at the end of this chapter. Watercress sauce is made by stewing chopped watercress in butter for ten minutes^ then add- ing a pinch of salt, the same of pepper, the same also of mustard, and a spoonful of vin- egar. Beat till quite smooth with a wooden spoon, then add the gravy from the roasting joint. This is served in a sauce-tureen, and is a pleasant change from ordinary gravy. Almost all the dishes mentioned might come under the category of kitchen-physic, — for one of the first essentials in sickroom diet is to please the eye as well as the palate. Sorrel Soup {Potage a VOseille), Having carefully washed two large handfuls of sorrel, dry it, then chop it finely. Chop also a medium-sized spring onion. Melt an SOME LITTLE USED VEGETABLES. 139 ounce of butter, stew tlie oniou and sorrel in this (in a covered stewpan) for about half an hour. Meanwhile, bring a quart of water to boiling point in the soup-pot, throw into it a slice of stale white bread cut into dice (no crust), and let it boil till the sorrel is ready. Add that next, then a teaspoonful of salt, half one of pepper, and the beaten yolks of two eggs. Let all boil up once, then pour into the tureen. A pinch of dried herbs or just one grate of nutmeg may be added then. Watercress Soup. The foundation of this soup is best made from a puree of haricot beans. They should have been soaked overnight, then boiled for two or three hours, or until they will rub through a sieve. Chop the watercress, and cook it in butter with an onion also chopped, as the sorrel was done. Add enouo'h boilinsr water to the haricot puree to bring it down to the consistency of cream ; then stir in the watercress, etc., and any other green herb you may possess. Just before serving stir in a tablespoonful of cream, and salt and pepper to season it well. A pint of haricots

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.