Amino acids are often referred to as the building blocks of proteins and are compounds that play many critical roles in your body, including regulating the immune function and building muscle. Your body needs twenty different amino acids to grow and function properly. Though all twenty of these are important for your health, only nine amino acids are classified as essential, watercress could help boost your amino acid profile.
Unlike nonessential amino acids, essential amino acids can’t be made by your body and must be obtained through your diet. The best sources of essential amino acids are animal proteins like meat, eggs and poultry but unusually for a plant, watercress has a full complement of the nine essential amino acids. What’s more, although the overall number of calories are low in watercress, half of them are made up of protein – remarkably this proportion is about the same as chicken, cod and beef!
Amino acids are often referred to as the building blocks of proteins and are compounds that play many critical roles in your body, including regulating the immune function and building muscle. Your body needs twenty different amino acids to grow and function properly. Though all twenty of these are important for your health, only nine amino acids are classified as essential.
Unlike nonessential amino acids, essential amino acids can’t be made by your body and must be obtained through your diet. The best sources of essential amino acids are animal proteins like meat, eggs and poultry but unusually for a plant, watercress has a full complement of the nine essential amino acids. What’s more, although the overall number of calories are low in watercress, half of them are made up of protein – remarkably this proportion is about the same as chicken, cod and beef!
Watercress Power Balls
Serves: 6 Preparation: 20 min Cooking: 0 min
Ingredients
• 0.7oz watercress
• 1oz pumpkin seeds
• 1.4oz Medjool dates
• 0.9oz whole hazelnuts
• 0.3oz puffed brown rice
• Pinch of ground turmeric
• Pinch of cinnamon
• Pinch of Himalayan pink salt • 1 tsp cacao powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp Manuka honey
• 0.2oz chia seeds
• Juice of 1⁄2 an orange
Method
Pick the watercress leaves off the stalks and finely chop. Place the pumpkin seeds in a food processor and blend until chopped to a crumb-like consistency. Reserve half of the pumpkin seeds on a plate and add the rest back to the blender.
Add all other ingredients to the blender. Blend on full power until everything is thoroughly combined and the mixture has come together, which may take a few minutes. Divide into 12 balls and roll in the ground pumpkin seeds to coat.
The balls can be kept for 3-5 days in a refrigerated airtight container.
Ultimate Superfood Salad (Serves: 2)
Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking: 20 minutes
Ingredients
• 3oz watercress • 3.5oz quinoa
• Juice of 1 lime • 2.5fl oz olive oil • 1 pomegranate • 1 ripe avocado • 1 clove garlic
• 3.5oz roasted sweet potato
• 1 small punnet alfalfa sprouts
or mixed sprouts
• 1 head broccoli, cut into small
florets
• 0.9oz mixed nuts, toasted • Sea salt and black pepper • Pinch chilli flakes
• 0.9oz chopped cilantro
Method
Preheat the oven to 390°F, then chop the sweet potatoes into inch cubes with the skin on. Place into a roasting tray, season with salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil and roast in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Cook the quinoa in salted boil-
ing water according to the packet instructions. Place the broccoli into a metal colander and set over the boiling quinoa. Cover and steam the broccoli for three minutes.
Once cooked, drain and rinse the quinoa and broccoli under cold running water. Remove the sweet potato from the oven. Cut the pomegranate in half and squeeze the juice from one half into a large bowl. Add the olive oil, chilli flakes and lime juice, whisk together and season to taste. Add in the cilantro, alfalfa, quinoa and sweet potato and toss well.
Peel the avocado, remove the stone and roughly chop. Spread the quinoa and sweet potato mixture onto a serving plate and dot the avocado over the top.
Finally, bash the second half of the pomegranate with a wooden spoon to knock the seeds out and scatter these over the plate along with the toasted nuts. Check out watercress.co.uk – a foodie haven for the people who really do love watercress.
For more healthy recipes to boost the system, check out these articles.
