Watercress Salad with Pear and Walnuts

Name: Watercress Salad with Pear and Walnuts
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Argentine
Ingredients: 2 bunches of watercress (about 200 g), leaves and tender stems only; 2 ripe but firm pears (Williams or Packham); 100 g walnut halves; 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil; 1 tbsp cider vinegar; 1 tsp mustard; 1 tsp honey; Salt and freshly ground black pepper

⏱ 15 min in total🔪 10 min prep🍳 5 min cooking🍽 4 portiesEasy

The peppery bite of watercress against the sweetness of ripe pears, with toasted walnuts for the crunch. It comes together in fifteen minutes — and it is dressed only just before serving, which is the secret to the leaves reaching the table intact.

🔎 What is watercress? — where it comes from, what goes in it and how it differs.

Ingredients

Measurements

🍽 4 servings

2 bunches of watercress (about 200 g), leaves and tender stems only
2 ripe but firm pears (Williams or Packham)
100 g walnut halves
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp honey
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

1
Toast the walnuts in a dry pan over medium heat, 4 or 5 minutes, moving them often until they give off their scent. Tip them onto a cold plate straight away: left in the hot pan they carry on toasting and turn bitter.
2
Wash the watercress by plunging it into a bowl of cold water and lifting it out with your hands, without pouring the water away. The grit stays at the bottom of the bowl; pour it out and it goes back onto the leaves. Repeat until the water runs clean.
3
Dry it thoroughly, in a salad spinner or wrapped in a tea towel. A wet leaf does not take the vinaigrette: it dilutes it and the salad turns watery.
4
Separate out the leaves and the tender stems, which are juicy and give the best of the watercress. Discard only the thick, fibrous stems from the base of the bunch.
5
For the vinaigrette, combine the mustard with the honey and the vinegar, then add the oil in a thread while whisking, until it thickens slightly. Season and taste: it should be a shade sharper than you would like, because the watercress takes the edge off it.
6
Cut the pears into fine wedges, unpeeled, only now. The skin adds colour and holds the wedge together, and cut in advance they oxidise.
7
Toss the watercress with the vinaigrette in a wide bowl, with your hands and without squeezing. Add the pears and the walnuts, turn twice more and take it to the table at once: once dressed, watercress wilts in minutes.