Watercress is a vegetable most Chinese people are thoroughly familiar with even though it’s called “Western vegetable” or 西洋菜. The only thing I know about watercress, is that it makes excellent soup.

Here’s the “meaty” part – sliced carrots and chicken cubes. I boiled them in water flavoured with Bovril.

Gorgeous watercress fresh from the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia.

You won’t believe how easy it is. Just dump all the watercress into the pot and keep on boiling until the fragrance of the watercress fills your nose.

And here it is. All done. As you may have expected, the kids loved it. This soup is virtually idiot-proof. You should try it. Once our population hits 6.9 million and all our true blue Singaporean hawkers are gone, your cooking skills will come in extremely handy.

© Chan Joon Yee