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W Is For Watermelon

 W is for watermelon, that wonderfully refreshing fruit we can eat on a hot summer day.  It’s so full of juice that it will quench your thirst easily.  I remember eating watermelon in France when I was young, the juice running down my chin as I couldn’t catch it all!

W is also for watercress, an iron rich food that has a slightly peppery flavour.  The recipe for today is for watercress soup, a wonderful starter that is so easy to make.  For added iron I make mine with spinach included. 

Steps of cooking watercress.

  1. Just melt a spoonful of butter in a pan and lightly fry half a chopped onion and a clove of chopped garlic together until they are soft but not brown.
  2.   Turn the heat up and add a bag of watercress, tough stems removed. 
  3. Bags usually come in about 300g weight. 
  4. Pop a lid on the pan for about 30 seconds, then add about a third as much spinach, and cook until the spinach has wilted. 
  5. Add about half a litre of boiling water and simmer for 3-4 minutes.
  6.   Whizz the mixture in a blender till smooth and serve with a good serving of creme fraiche swirled on the top, and of course the ever-present crusty bread!
  7.   Simply delicious!



Words beginning with ‘W’ that aren’t immediately associated with food an eating inluce:

  • Wichity grub – although anyone who has watched ‘I’m A Survivor’ will know of this Australian wood boring caterpillar!

  • wally, a Cockney term used for a giant pickled cucumber (gherkin),

  • wax caps, not the Barbour sort but an an edible fungus that is brightly coloured,

  • whigg, also a term used for a political uprising opposing the conservatives, and a driver of coach and horses, it is Scottish for a sour milk or whey.

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