Watercress, radish and edamame salad

Watercress, radish and edamame salad

Note: Edamame are immature soybeans that you can find in the frozen veggie section of the supermarket and they are my latest food discovery - how did I ever live without them?  Simply toss the pods into boiling water for three minutes, then drain and when cool, shell them.

This is a very simple and nutritious salad that is just perfect for the post Christmas blowout - light and tasty.  When I start having to have two cold showers a day, I know it's time for a salad like this.

I love watercress, that spicy nuttiness, and we are lucky that our local farmer's market stocks it most of the year round - I get this from the same family of market gardeners that I make a bee line to every week for fragrant big bunches of dill, coriander and parsley - then leave laden and very happy.  I also love radish - the colour, crunch and taste.

Bunch of watercress, washed and dried
A few fresh radish, sliced
1 cup edamame beans (about 225 grams whole beans before cooking and shelling)
1 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted and sprinkled with nigella seed on top of salad just before serving.
1 tsp nigella seeds* or black sesame.

Dressing

Juice of half a lemon

Few drops of sesame oil

2 tbsp light olive oil

Freshly ground salt and pepper

Whisk together and pour over prepared salad just before serving.

*Nigella seeds are great little things to keep in the pantry to toast and toss on salads like this   or for sprinkling on top of savoury breads and biscuits.  They are the seeds from the delightfully named Love-in-a-mist flower (Nigella sativa) - which is a lovely old fashioned cottage garden plant that I grow for their spring flowering and for their seeds.  It's hard to describe the flavour - you will just have to trust me and give them a try; they are also available in speciality shops.