Lady Claire Macdonald waxes lyrical over all things watercress.

You can’t beat the versatility of this nutritious salad vegetable, says Lady Claire Macdonald

Ilove watercress. This is a bonus because watercress is packed full of goodness nutritionally, and it is a very versatile salad vegetable. There are, though, a couple of things to bear in mind about watercress. One most important thing is to avoid picking it growing in the wild. The reason? If there are sheep anywhere in the vicinity, there is the risk that the watercress could be contaminated and give the consumer liver fluke.

My mother taught me this and I have abided by it all my life. But we can buy watercress which has been grown in wide wet fields where there is no danger of sheep nearby.

As I write, I am in Hampshire at a family wedding, and we are surrounded by watercress cultivation – hence my inspiration!

The other important thing is the ease of eating it. Watercress is long stems of wide flat leaves, and they can drip dressing down your front if you aren’t careful. I always snip my watercress in a salad, with good scissors this takes only a few snips – it makes all the difference to the ease of eating.

Watercress is packed full of iron and vitamin C and is delicious combined with citrus – the lemon in the sauce – with blood oranges in their season or with ordinary oranges at other times of the year, skin pared off and the oranges chopped – remove any seeds encountered.

A slick of olive oil, salt and black pepper is all that is required to dress any watercress and orange salad – the citrus juice adds enough acidity for most palates.

Watercress makes most delicious souffles and it can be cooked, but it then loses most of its vitamin content. But you can either accompany this souffle with parmesan and cream sauce, or with roast red pepper sauce.

Watercress is available year-round and a salad veg we can make the very most of if we buy it regularly.

At the same time we are contributing in no small way to our own health by eating it.