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Watercress - effect, cultivation and recipes
- Watercress is wild in Europe in clear running waters and has been cultivated for centuries.
- Cress is also a spice and medicinal plant, and thus healthy nutrition can be combined with the treatment of diseases.
- Watercress is one of the best vitamin and mineral donors and tastes bitter-hot with mustard oil glycosides.
- The plant cleanses the blood, drives the urine and acts against bacteria.
contents
- ingredients
- effect
- Which plant parts we use?
- ecology
- Occurrence
- history
- Watercress cultivation
- Watercress in the kitchen
ingredients
Watercress shines with the vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, C, D, E and K in larger quantities. In addition, there are essential oils, tannins, bitter substances and mustard oil glycosides, which provide a sharp taste. The plant contains plenty of iodine and is therefore suitable for the treatment of iodine deficiency. Watercress also provides minerals with iron, potassium, calcium, folic acid, zinc and niacin.
Watercress contains many vitamins, essential oils, tannins, bitter substances, mustard oil glycosides and plenty of iodine. (Image: jeepbabes / fotolia.com) effect
Watercress works well against various diseases that are the cause of vitamin deficiencies and was an excellent source of vitamin C and vitamin D in the cold season. In ancient times, people used it to treat or prevent scurvy.
The plant cleanses the blood, drives the urine, acts against bacteria and dissolves mucus. Watercress helps against:
- to cough,
- cold,
- Throat and pharyngitis,
- bronchitis,
- inflamed gums,
- digestive problems,
- anorexia,
- Inflammation of the gallbladder,
- worms,
- rheumatism,
- gout,
- an inflamed bladder,
- Vitamin or mineral deficiencies disturbed metabolism,
- Externally against blemishes, dandruff, dandruff, acne, eczema and rash.
Watercress promotes the work of the detoxification organs kidneys, liver and bile, and the bitter substances stimulate the appetite. The diuretic properties also make it a remedy for urinary stones.
Which plant parts we use?
Watercress can be used fresh or dried. In general, however, especially in Europe, the fresh plant or its juice is the first choice. As watercress is also well suited as a kitchen herb, it can be used as a salad ingredient. The fresh leaves are usually combined with other wild herbs, which dampen the pungent taste of watercress.
In such salads should not be more than 20 grams of cress per serving and day contained, because the mustard oil glycosides can irritate the stomach at high dose. For pregnant women, small children or people with irritated bowel watercress is not recommended.
ecology
The name watercress already says that the salmon (other name of cress) likes it wet. It is an aquatic plant that prefers clear streams. Then it has little claims and grows in "carpets" on sand like gravel, mostly on calcareous soil, in springs and streams in depths of up to two meters.
The entire plant grows up to 90 cm in width, while the individual roots start from a crawling basic axis. The tiny cruciferous flowers are in grapes and open only in sunshine. The leaves are pinnate and elliptic.
Watercress flowers in white crucifers, which are clustered in grapes. (Image: Marén Wischnewski / fotolia.com) Occurrence
The Original Watercress was originally from Europe, North Africa and Asia, but has established itself as a neophyte on almost all continents, in cold as well as in warmer waters.
history
Already the ancient Romans and Greeks knew watercress as a medicinal plant. Thus wrote the physician Dioscorides: "The cardamine drives and warms the urine. It is also eaten raw. It sells liver and sunburn stains when it's hung up all night and washed off in the morning. "
In the Middle Ages, the medicine was indeed determined by religious-magical ideas, but in cress, the effectiveness against the diseases for which it was used as a means was considered scientifically proven: bronchitis, blood purification, to kill worms and to stimulate the flow of urine.
In early modern times, fresh watercress was a remedy often used to treat tuberculosis and rheumatism. And Paracelsus mentions her as a medicine against worms and to cleanse the blood and also against toothache.
Matthiolus warned against giving pregnant watercress in 1626 because it was too much urine. Instead, he recommended her against scurvy. This is remarkable because it was not known at the time that scurvy is a deficiency of vitamin C and the "Bachkraut" helps here in real terms.
With its high content of vitamin C, watercress was / is an effective remedy for scurvy. (Photo: Mikhail Petrov / fotolia.com) Weinmann writes in 1742 that watercress is a "specific" in the scorbutian depreciation and so called Miltz weighting. "Otherwise he sees the plant as a remedy for" putrid ulcers ", jaundice and stones. Whether it is urinary stones, is not known.
Kneipp, the inventor of water tread, recommended the fresh watercress for spring cures and used them against diseases of the lungs and anemia.
Watercress cultivation
In Germany, watercress was cultivated at least since 1650 and in 1809 Napoleon took over the cultivation of the medicinal plant from Germany. From 1810 he had them planted at Senlis and Chantilly. The need was so great that France still had to import watercress 100 years later.
In the twentieth century, cultivation declined rapidly due to industrial pollution of the waters that polluted the plant. By contrast, watercress has experienced a return since the 1990s. Leading the cultivation of watercress are the British, who produce thousands of tons of it annually. In English cuisine, it is a coveted spice plant and the "fields" between London and Oxford also serve a large local market.
Real watercress needs above all cold, clean spring water. In England, there is still plenty. Cultivations are up to 60 cm deep graves, which are filled with slowly flowing water and windless in winter. Standing waters pollute more easily.
Watercress in the kitchen
Watercress can be used just like garden cress and nasturtium. It tastes slightly bitter and spicy.
Watercress is well suited not only as an ingredient in a wild herb salad. Numerous dishes can be refined with the sharp note of cress. (Image: eflstudioart / fotolia.com) Although the whole plant is suitable as a blanched vegetable, in this country we mainly mix the raw leaves with quark, yoghurt or cream cheese and spread gray and black bread with it.
In green salads, watercress is usually not the main ingredient, but it tastes too intense. But it turns a boring lettuce into a tingling experience. If you like the cress, you can combine it with a variety of lettuce plants, but it is not recommended to combine it with other "hothisers" such as onion plants in particular.
Watercress goes well with carrots, giersch, pumpkin, cucumber and borage, with head, endive, iceberg or romanesco salad, especially with tomatoes and mozzarella, but also with bean salads, pea soup and scrambled eggs, potato salad and pasta salad.
Watercress rounds off sandwiches, whether with fried eggs, turkey breast, smoked tofu, shrimp or Linsenpatties. We just sprinkle the small cut leaves on the sandwich. Among kitchens and medicinal herbs, watercress is particularly in harmony with mint and lemon balm, fruits with apples and citrus fruits.
Little common in Germany, but a good insider tip is watercress in sauces. Cress is the icing on the cake with fish and poultry, but also with cabbage. However, caution is required, because the dominant taste easily conceals a delicate bouquet. (Dr. Utz Anhalt)