Laura the Gastronaut > Julia Child > Soup > Potage au Cresson

Watercress Soup

May 7, 2019 | Updated August 18, 2023 | Laura

✽ Recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I | Julia Child ✽

Julia Child Recipe 21 | 507 recipes to go!

✽ Water-cress Soup [Potage au Cresson], p. 38

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✽ Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I was written by Julia Child who co-authored with Simone Beck & Louisette Bertholle and was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1961.

✽ You can buy Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I which contains these recipes here. (affiliate link)

The purpose of this Julia Child section of my blog is to document my journey of learning how to cook. To show my successes, my failures, and what I learned along the way.

Since I didn't create these recipes (if only!), I do not post exact amounts of ingredients or word-for-word instructions. If any of these recipes spark your interest, I highly recommend you buy Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking (affiliate link). It's a great investment and learning tool and contains hundreds of classic recipes.

I hope that you enjoy reading my thoughts, learn something new, and leave inspired to try a new recipe. Bon appétit!

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✽ Butter Count: +3 TB

✽ Cost: $7.79 [~$1.11 per serving]

Check out the total Julia Child butter count & cost here!

→ Looking for a different Julia Child recipe? Here's a list of all of the completed and pending Mastering the Art of French Cooking recipes!

Just like February, March passed me by so quickly. This is only my 4th recipe and 2nd blog this month. School is really getting in the way of my cooking!

Fortunately, school is almost done forever. I graduate mid-May, and I couldn’t be more ready. I also hope that will mean I am able to cook more too.

If you read my 2nd blog about leek and potato soup, you will soon find out that this one will be VERY similar. This recipe is essentially the potato and leek soup with water-cress added in. You still have the same ingredients- potatoes, leeks, water, salt, and whipping cream.

So, maybe you are like me, and asking ‘what in the world is watercress??’ Well, that is a very good question. Watercress is an aquatic plant species that is a leafy green. Their little green leaves actually look like tiny lily pads to me.

Watercress taste like any other leafy green but have a slight peppery taste to them. It actually took me awhile to find it and then one day I’m at the grocery store I always go to, and there it was. I have NEVER been so excited to see a leafy green in my life. FINALLY I can move past the 2nd soup recipe!

Looking for more Julia Child soup recipes to read about?

→ Check out all of the soup recipes that I've completed so far!

✽ Step 1: Simmer Ingredients

This is a very simple recipe- put all ingredients except the watercress and cream into a pot and cook for about 45 minutes.

✽ Step 2: Add Watercress & Puree

Right before puréeing the soup, the watercress is added and simmered for 5 minutes with the soup.

✽ Step 3: Add Cream

The cream (or butter) is then stirred into the soup right before serving.

This is a somewhat quick and delicious soup that is perfectly reasonable to make on a weeknight.

I mentioned in the previous potato and leek soup blog that Julia says to mash that one with a fork, and I didn’t feel like I was able to combine all the ingredients very well. This time I did use my electric blender, and I enjoyed the soup much more. The flavors were able to really mix in with each other and was the perfect consistency. When it doubt, get the blender out.

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Edit: These pictures are.. not great. I apologize. When making these early recipes I was working in an extremely tiny kitchen that had pratically zero counter space and very poor lighting. My only saving grace was that somebody once had one of those pull-out cutting boards installed. What a life saver.

I was also in pharmacy school, getting minimal sleep, working for free, completely broke, didn't know the first thing about taking photos, and knew practically nothing about French cooking (or cooking in general for that matter).

I've debated taking these old posts down but decided to keep them up because they are all a part of my journey. These photos and my written struggles remind me how far I've come. I can pretty much make some of these base recipes in my sleep now!

You don't need fancy equipment or the finest ingredients to enjoy cooking and make good food. As one of my favorite cartoon characters, Ms. Frizzle, says, "Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!"

*This blog, Laura the Gastronaut, and this post were/are not endorsed or supported by Julia Child or The Julia Child Foundation.

Category: Julia Child, Soup Cuisine: French
Keywords: julia child soup recipes, watercress soup recipe, french soup recipe, julia child potato soup

✽ Did you make this recipe too?
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More Soup Recipes:

✽ Onion Soup (there's a reason why this soup is famous.. so delicious!)
✽ Leek or Onion and Potato Soup (a very simple but tasty potato soup)
✽ Soupe au Pistou (a tomato and herb-based soup filled with vegetables)
→ Check out all of the completed Julia Child soup recipes!

✽ You can find this recipe and all the other Julia Child recipes I make in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I (affiliate link).
→ Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I was written by Julia Child who co-authored with Simone Beck & Louisette Bertholle and was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1961.

✽ Check out my Julia Child Recipe Checklist to see a list of all my completed and pending recipes from Mastering the Art of French Cooking!

Bon appétit!

May 7, 2019 by Laura Ehlers

*This Watercress Soup blog post may contain some Amazon affiliate links. These link to products that I personally use and recommend. If you purchase anything using my links, it will not cost you anything. It will though give laurathegastronaut.com some financial support which helps me keep this blog running. Thank you for reading my blogs and your continued support.