Wild Garlic and Wild Watercress

It feels like spring is just around the corner with an early Easter we are heading back up to Yorkshire, the  site of many a happy childhood holiday  and where I first introduced Nick to the joys of wild garlic  this prolific wild herb is beginning to send up its first tender leaves  and  coming soon to a woodland near you making a stroll in the woods smell like a visit to the local pizzeria .

  This weekend we also found  wild growing watercress amazingly near a site called Cressbrook in the Peak District . If you are harvesting it yourself be sure to wash it well.

I am never happier than when foraging  and cooking with the results by myself the watecress and garlic would probably have been fine as a salad but it was Saturday night and we had scored some lovely mature steaks and as ever trying to get through the vegebox potato mountain  so made a warm potato salad with the wild garlic and let the peppery watercress speak for itself on the side.

Warm Potato and Wild Garlic Salad

10 potatoes freshly boiled
15 wild garlic leaves torn into strips

Dressing this looks like a lot but the potatoes will really suck it up
3 heaped tbps honey
1tbps of mustard
10ml vinegar
10ml olive oil

Mix together the dressing with the torn garlic leaves
After draining the freshly boiled potatoes toss while still piping hot in the dressing and garlic leaves and serve . If you use cut potatoes they will suck up more of the dressing

I have also used wild garlic to make a pesto fantastic in soups , on pasta or potatoes

Wild Garlic Pesto

Finely chopped wild garlic leaves with olive oil, walnuts & roasted lemon ( I half lemons and drizzle them with olive oil baking in the oven on a medium temperature for 30 minutes and then keep them in the fridge covered in oil for up to a few weeks - roasting intensifies and mellows the flavour)

Spinach Soup with Wild Garlic Pesto