I love buying fruits and vegetables that look a little different than the norm. Face it, purple cauliflower, baby bananas, and red carrots are just fun. Same goes for the different squash and eggplant varieties you can find in abundance during the summer months. I adore those striped zucchinis, flat and yellow squashes, and long thin eggplants. Better yet, my kids think they're cool. And when kids think vegetables are cool, they're far more likely to eat them.

My daughters love to go to the farmers' market with me to pick out the vegetables that look the most appealing to them that week (although this is not as much fun as the bounce house they have there). During our visit last week, my kids were intrigued by the small globe squash and eggplant available at one of my favorite stands. They thought they looked like little vegetable planets and started deciding which one was Venus and which was Jupiter. If there's anything better than "cool" vegetables, it's vegetables that make my kids think, so obviously I bought two bags. As I handed over my money, I realized that in addition to the minor science lesson, this was the perfect opportunity to make one of my favorite summer dishes: stuffed squash and eggplant.

Stuffed squash and eggplant really make a great mid-week meal as the shape of the veggies are ideal for stuffing with leftovers. Sure you could cook up some fresh items for the stuffing, but this is really the perfect opportunity to use the rest of the chicken or beef you made on Monday, or the rice leftover from Chinese takeout the day before.

I start off by scooping the inner meat from the vegetables (this is easily accomplished with a grapefruit spoon if you have one) and then making a type of quick ratatouille out of it with some tomatoes, garlic and onion. I then mix in whatever grain I have in the fridge (although you could of course make some if you don't have any handy) and then toss in some chopped meat. When I made the dish this week I used some leftover beef brisket from the 4th of July. By the time I made this dish my husband and I were a little tired of the BBQ flavor of the brisket, but stuffed inside the vegetables with the ratatouille, rice and some cheeses, its flavors added a depth to the dish that really wowed us. Chicken, pork, or marinated tofu would also work well, as would lentils or chick peas.

Usually I bake my stuffed squash and eggplant in the oven, but this week I wanted to try grilling them. The result was really quite good. The intense heat from the grill brought out a sweetness in the squash and eggplant that baking hadn't in the past. The dish also cooked in about half the time it takes in the oven. The only problem was keeping everything upright on the grill so the stuffing didn’t spill out; this was easily remedied, however, by a muffin pan.

As we sat down to dinner, my kids saw a fun-shaped vegetable they were excited to eat, while I was marveling at how that leftover brisket and rice looked so mouthwatering inside the fresh squash and eggplant. The frugal side of me was quite pleased not to waste those perfectly good leftovers. Everyone was happy.

Stuffed Globe Squash and Eggplant

Makes: Enough for 4 - 6 people

Ingredients:

6 baby globe squash (also known as summer squash) -- around 2 inches in diameter
6 baby globe eggplants -- around 2 inches in diameter
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup cooked grains (such as rice, barley, couscous, or small pasta)
1 cup chopped tomatoes or drained canned tomatoes
1 medium or 2 small onions
2 cloves garlic
1 cup cooked meat (beef, chicken, or pork diced) or cooked beans such as lentils
2 Tbsp chopped fresh Italian parsley
2 Tbsp chopped fresh oregano
1/2 cup cheese (mozzarella, jack, or anything you like that melts smoothly) chopped into small cubes
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

1. Wash squash and eggplant and then slice off the top stem-side.

2. Scoop out the interior flesh of the vegetables, being sure to leave at least a 1/4-inch intact so the outer skin can hold the filling.

3. Chop all the vegetables (the onions, garlic and tomatoes, along with the squash and eggplant meat) into small pieces.

4. Heat about 2 Tbsp olive oil in a large non-reactive pan to medium heat. Add in the onions and garlic and cook for 1 - 2 minutes or until soft. Add in the squash and eggplant pieces and cook for another couple of minutes. Add more olive oil as needed at this point as the eggplant really soaks it up. Add in the tomatoes and cook until everything is soft. Season to taste.

5. Line squash and eggplant shells on a baking pan and sprinkle with olive oil and salt.

6. Add parsley and oregano to the mixed vegetables and then start scooping it into each squash and eggplant skin until half-way filled.

7. Add a cube or two of cheese to each vegetable and then continue stuffing until each vegetable is full. Top with the remainder of the cheese.

8. Heat your grill to medium high and then set each stuffed squash and eggplant onto direct heat (being careful to stand them up straight so the filling doesn’t fall out). Cook for around two minutes with the cover down.

9. With tongs, transfer the eggplant and squash to a muffin pan (you can pair up some of the smaller vegetables) and set the pan inside the grill with the cover down.

Note: Use an old muffin pan you no longer care much about or, if you have a nice one, cover each receptacle with aluminum foil.

10. Grill for another 5 minutes or until everything looks nicely cooked.

11. Repeat until all vegetables are cooked.

12. Serve with a salad or bread.

Saturday morning at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market was classically representative of the way I shop the market. My plan was to get in and out in about an hour and go home to start my day. But all the vendors had stories, and I ran into friends and two and a half hours later, I was trudging home, my arms laden with lots of delicious goodies for the week.

This time of year is special at the market, as I think that the market changes drastically from week to week.

A couple days before the market, CUESA mentioned on their twitter feed that Lagier Ranches would be selling the elusive sour cherry this week. That was enough to motivate me to get to the market right when it opened, and it was a good thing that I did. The scene around the small yield of sour cherries was intense. "That woman just bought $50 worth of cherries!" my friend Jenn mentioned to me. I know that sour cherries are pretty rare here, and that they have a nearly cult following among some communities. The cherries were completely gone within about 45 minutes, and I brought home my precious two pounds to brandy for cocktails.

Fruit crops burst on to the scene for just a moment and are gone. My favorite Bing cherries are here, but only for about a month. I tasted Bings from many vendors this week before deciding that I would purchase my weekly ration from Johann at Hidden Star Orchards. Sierra Cascade Blueberries will be around for the next few weeks. I love Sierra Cascade's blueberries because they are small, full of flavor, and slightly tart. You can find them in the back of the building, right below the Gandhi statue. This morning, Sam mentioned CandyCot apricots which are only around for a couple of weeks a year as well. These apricots are extremely high on the Brix Scale for sweetness, and I see people carry them around the market like treasures.

If you know Nigel Walker, the proprietor of Eatwell Farm, you know that he is always working on new, fun projects and products. Word has it that he is working toward a grain CSA which would provide customers with a variety of grains and dried beans throughout the year -- much like his vegetable CSA does now. When I saw that he was selling large bunches of triticale (a wheat-like grain) this week, I knew that soon he would be providing us with fantastic local and organic grain.

This week, Fatted Calf debuted a new all-beef hot dog made with lamb casings. The beef is sourced from Marin Sun Farms, and I am really looking forward to tasting them. By the time I arrived at the Fatted Calf booth around 8:15 am, they were gone so I will be sure to pre-order by email next time.

The photo at the top of the post is of the lovely strawberries that Lucero Organic grows. Many of us are still missing our beloved Ella Bella Farm -- a great farm that closed up shop in California last year. But I've found that Lucero's strawberries almost make me forget how much I loved Ella Bella's. They are a great replacement from a farm that brings impeccably beautiful produce to the market.

Last Sunday, a brand-new farmers market opened in one of my favorite San Francisco neighborhoods: The Inner Sunset. The market, in the parking lot at Ninth and Irving streets, is run by the Pacific Coast Farmers Markets Association and will run from June through November. Walking into the market, you get a feeling of a true community event. Neighbors are greeting each other, and the general atmosphere was festive and fun. The market is mostly vegetable and fruit vendors, but shoppers can also purchase eggs, baked goods and prepared foods. There is even a tofu vendor, but I don't remember seeing any cheeses or meats.

By the time I arrived, the eggs were sold out, but the vendor -- Smart Eggs -- looks interesting. It's a student-run egg farm that is from Modesto Junior College.

There are quite a few farms from the coastal region and several from the Central Valley. I will be returning to this market. It's a fun, mellow option for a Sunday morning market.




The vendor list, as I noted it, is as follows:

Serendipity Farms
Far West Fungi
Berrylicious
De Palma Farms
Capay Organic
Wassum Ranch
Smart Eggs
Tofu Yu
Bakers of Paris
Her Farm
Arizmendi Bakery
Garcia Farm
Rodin Farm
Calolea
City Bees
Fifth Crow Farm
Kashiwase

Inner Sunset Farmers Market
9am - 1pm, Sundays
In the parking lot behind the Irving Street shops.
Enter from 9th or 8th Ave
Runs through November 22

Underappreciated fruits and vegetables will always have a special place in my heart. Rhubarb, nettles, quince: all these things, so tasty when cooked, used to be very popular until they got shouldered aside by easier pleasures that didn't sting the unwary picker into welts, or weren't so sour or astringent at first bite as to make you wince. Artichokes' dip-scooping leaves were probably its saving grace. But for its use as a nifty delivery system for melted butter and lemon mayonnaise, it would be a forgotten thistle today.

Apricots, while more accessible, still have a certain forgotten-fruit quality to them. Just as quince gets described as apple's tough, weird older sister, so apricots are often just a placeholder for peach-lovers, something sweet and orange with a pit that will do until the real goodies come along.

But apricots are good for cooking in a way that peaches aren't, their flavor intensifying into an ineffable tangy sweetness that leans just right against a crumbly, buttery short crust or a piece of whole-grain toast, especially one spread with mild fresh chevre. Too often, though, all that the marketplace offers is the big bland Patterson, so smooth-skinned, so bright, so uniform and so utterly dull.

What you really want, especially for jam, are Blenheims, also called Royal Blenheims. You have to trust in these, because they're not so pretty. Mostly they're small, often green-shouldered, often freckly. At peak ripeness, they're almost deliquescent, their pulp turning to jam right inside the skin.

But, oh, what juicy, sticky-dripping flavor! Slurpy-good right off the tree, they're sublime for jam. I like to use the same overnight-sugar macerating technique as for strawberries, although these apricots don't throw off enough liquid to make straining necessary. Instead, they subside gracefully into a pool of satiny slush that's part pulp, part skin, part juice, and all divine.

Being wildly uncommercial—too small, too funny-looking, too mushy, too short a season—Blenheims have to be hunted out, either from soft-hearted orchardists or friends with an old tree in the backyard. Everything Under the Sun (the folks with the "Sampling is Mandatory-We're Watching!" sign) at the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market had them last week, and probably this week, but not for much longer. Carpe diem! Get out your jars!

Apricot Jam

Makes: 4 to 5 8-oz jars.

Ingredients:
3 lb apricots
2 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (1-2 lemons)

Preparation:
1. Halve apricots and pop out pits. Cut fruit into quarters if large. Toss apricots, sugar, and lemon juice together in a glass or ceramic bowl. Cover with a towel and set aside for several hours at room temperature, or overnight in the refrigerator. Stir occasionally to help the sugar dissolve evenly, if you feel like it.

2. When all the sugar has been dissolved, pour the mixture into a wide, heavy-bottomed nonreactive pot and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer 10 minutes, stirring gently but frequently. Cook for another 8 minutes, until the fruit looks translucent and is beginning to break down. It's easy to scorch it at this stage, so stir frequently and don't wander off.

3. Pour mixture back into the bowl, let cool, then cover with a towel and set aside at room temperature for at least six hours, or overnight in the refrigerator.

4. Return fruit mixture to the large pot. Over low heat, bring to a simmer, stirring frequently. Cook for another 10-12 minutes, until fruit has mostly broken down and juices look syrupy. Scoop a small amount of juice onto a clean metal spoon. Tip the spoon sideways and let juice run off the edge. When juice has reached the jelly point, the last few drops will look thicker and run together into one viscous drop. Remove from heat. Ladle into clean, sterilized jars.

5. Set jars on a clean towel and do not touch or move them until they are completely cool. If you're using canning jars, listen for the slurpy sucking pop of the jars vacuum-sealing. Sealed jars will keep up to 1 year in a cool, dry place. If jar isn't sealed, store in fridge and eat within 2-3 weeks.

If eating is an agricultural act, as Wendell Berry so famously said, then what better way to celebrate the connection between food and farming than at Dirt to Dining?

Jesse Cool, the down-to-earth owner-cook (don't call her a chef!) of Menlo Park's Flea Street Cafe is hosting this benefit for the Ecological Farming Association right in her own backyard--which just happens to be a bountiful edible garden on the edge of the Stanford campus.

Cool, well known for her longtime dedication to seasonal, locally-sourced and sustainable cuisine, is opening up her address book, too. On hand to nosh and chat will be dozens of organic farmers and winemakers, including those from Full Belly Farm, Frog's Leap Winery, Green Gulch Farm, Live Earth Farm, Swanton Berry Farm, Robert Sinskey Vineyards, Frey Vineyards, and more.

And of course, going along with the garden tours will be plenty of delectable food and wine. That fava-bean canapé? Probably made from beans grown by the guy sipping sauvignon blanc right next you. Never seen a fava bean in its natural habitat? It's over there, hanging on vines right next to the carrots. Dining doesn't get any dirtier than that.

Dirt to Dining: A Day in Jesse Cool's Kitchen Garden
Sunday, June 7, 2009
2pm-5pm
2150 Amhearst Street
Palo Alto, CA
Tickets: $75

Broccoli rabe, also known as rapini, is one of those vegetables people seem wary of cooking at home. Whenever I buy a bushel, it seems there's always someone standing next to me asking what it is and how I'll cook it. They usually have a curious yet skeptical look on their face, as if to say "that looks mildly interesting, but I'm sticking with the chard." If you only shop in a grocery store, you may never have even seen it for sale as it's mostly available at farmers' markets and Asian produce stores. But if you find yourself in one of those places, I highly recommend buying a batch. Just look for the plant with dark spiky green leaves, small florets (often with tiny white flowers) and medium-sized stalks. It looks a bit like a dandelion greens / broccoli hybrid.

The thing is, broccoli rabe really is worth trying. In addition to it being highly nutritious (it's full of calcium and iron, not to mention Vitamins A and C), its flavors are more complex than other greens. It pairs beautifully with beans, pork and chicken and works well as a side dish or in pasta dishes and soups. It is also one of my favorite foods to serve with Italian sausage. And, if trying new flavors isn't enough, it's one of the cheapest vegetables you can buy. At about $1 a bushel, it's the perfect ingredient if you're looking to make inexpensive family meals.

Broccoli rabe is a staple in both Southern Italian and Chinese cooking. I actually buy mine at the Asian produce stand at my local farmers' market where it sits right next to some long tubers I am very curious about. Some people don't like rapini because it has a pungent smell, but if you don't overcook it, the smell seems more earthy and green, which I like. It is great steamed and sautéed, but I think it tastes best roasted in the oven.

Roasting broccoli rabe in olive oil is the easiest path to rapini success. The hot oven helps tenderize the stalks and crisps up the leaves, so there's no chance of ending up with limp greens. The dry heat also brings out a delicious innate sweetness and removes some of the plant's bitter element. Although many cooks like to blanch the rapini and then sauté it, if you're not careful this method can make the broccoli rabe soggy or droopy. If you don't want to turn on your oven, that's okay too: you can easily get similar results by firing up a hot pan, and sautéing the rapini in olive oil on a high flame with sea salt. Once it sears a bit, just lower the flame, add a couple of tablespoons of water (pasta water is great if you have some on hand) and cover for a couple of minutes.

So get to know some broccoli rabe. At $1 a bunch, how can you pass it up?

Pasta with Roasted Broccoli Rabe and Lentils

Makes: 4 servings

Ingredients:
1/2 pound dried pasta
1 bushel broccoli rabe
3 large garlic cloves sliced
1 cup cooked lentils
4 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Kosher or sea salt
Parmesan cheese

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Heat a large pot of water to make your pasta
3. When water comes to a boil, add 2 Tbsp salt plus the pasta. Stir and cook until al dente.
4. Meanwhile, wash your broccoli rabe and chop off the ends (about a 1/2 inch)
5. Drizzle a tablespoon of olive oil on a large baking sheet and then lay the broccoli rabe and sliced garlic on top. Drizzle another tablespoon of olive oil on top along with a sprinkling of kosher or sea salt and then toss to make sure the oil evenly coats the rapini.
6. Place the baking dish in the oven for 8-12 minutes, or until the broccoli rabe is tender. Don’t worry if the edges of some leaves seem to become dry and crackly; they’ll taste great.
7. Take the rapini out of the oven and set aside.
8. In a medium pan, heat the remaining 2 Tbsp olive oil and stir in the cooked lentils. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add about a 1/4 cup of pasta water as well as more olive oil if you’d like. Cook until warm and then turn off the heat.
9. Once the broccoli rabe has cooled a bit, chop it into 1-inch pieces.
10. When pasta is ready, mix it into the lentils along with the broccoli rabe and cooked garlic.
11. Place in serving dishes and top with grated cheese.

For about as long as I have been talking about eating food from local farmers, I have been talking about Gary Paul Nabhan. He is the author of a book called Coming Home to Eat which definitively changed my life's course and really made me focus on talking about eating local food.

Gary Paul Nabhan spoke at a CUESA-sponsored event last week, and I cleared my calendar to go hear him speak. I'd never seen him in person, and was excited to do so. I was running late and starving, so I grabbed a quick salami sandwich from Boccalone and dashed upstairs at the Ferry Building to get a seat.

I have a tiny aside here that I need to mention before I go on: I am pretty shy socially. Around my friends, I'm brave and slightly irreverent. But when I have to introduce myself to strangers, or have to speak or represent myself, I'm pretty shy.

That's why it's remarkable that halfway between scarfing down my salami sandwich and settling in my seat, Mr. Nabhan walked over and I casually introduced myself and we chatted about the Eat Local Challenge. He and I had emailed last year (when he submitted a post for the Eat Local Challenge site), so I was pretty safe in introducing myself, but I'm still a little stunned that I was able to calmly chat with one of my heroes like he was a friend of mine. It was a thrill.

Mr. Nabhan was speaking in conjunction with Ashley Rood about their book Renewing America's Food Traditions which highlights the endangered foods in America. Mr. Nabhan is a proponent of Eater-Based Conservation -- the idea that if you want to save a particular food, you have to eat it. He says that without a demand for a unique food or varietal, a farmer will never make room on their farm for it. We have many examples of endangered foods here in California. I talked about Santa Maria Pinquitos a few weeks ago, and they are highlighted in the book along with the Sierra Beauty apple, white abalone, and other native foods.

Mr. Nabhan and Ms. Rood had wonderful stories of foods around the country that have been revived through this project -- from the Marshall Strawberry to the Makah Ozette potato which can be found in the Northwest and is now more widely available.

The CUESA staff recorded this discussion and will be posting it at CUESA Listen & Learn when the recording is ready -- it's worth a listen.

How do you grow a farmer? You start with dirt and seeds and water, of course. But just like good vegetables also need mulch and worms and pollinators and beneficial bugs to chase off the pests, a farmer learns not just through her own experience but through the hard-won experiences of other farmers, a whole long bloodline of observation through years of harvests and springtimes, of rain slicing down into mud and hot sun swelling the tomatoes sweet, of aphids clumping up inside the broccoli and leaf miners boring wiggle tracks across the chard.

That's great if you come from a heritage of family farmers. But what if the closest you have to a back forty is a pot of basil on steps? Or what if your family's farm is corn and soybeans, and you want to grow organic lettuce? If you're young and hardy, you can rent yourself out as an unpaid intern or WOOFer, and hope you get to do more than just water and weed.

Or you can dig into a hands-on, intensive program like the one at the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems at UC Santa Cruz. For a six-month growing season, you'll live, learn, eat, sleep, and farm on a beautiful 30-acre spread of organic educational farmland.

Graduates of this program, which has been running for over 40 years, are the farmers feeding you now. They're the ones building school gardens and working on food justice and sustainability issues all around California and beyond. For a program that graduates just 35 to 40 farmers a year, its impact on the organic movement has been both broad and deep. As a graduate myself, I've met countless farmers and food people over the past couple of years, only to find out that they, too, are former "farmies."

And now it's time to help the farm grow its farmers. What the program needs is housing. After several decades of letting apprentices live rent-free in tents (and before that, teepees) while in the program, UCSC is now demanding that proper temporary housing be built on the farm. The result? Some $250,000 needs to be raised by mid-summer, or the program will have to go on hiatus next year.

Hence, the campaign to Grow a Farmer Campaign. Throughout May, participating restaurants and businesses around the Bay Area are donating 10% or more of their sales on a particular day to the campaign. If you're a chef or restauranteur, you can sign up here. If you're a happy eater, check out the list of events for this month.

Because who will grow your food if you don't help grow your farmers?

It's an exciting time around the farmers market these days. I hadn't been to the market for about two weeks, and was amazed at how much the market changed in a short amount of time. There is a promise of summer fruit in the air, and the spring vegetables are in abundance. Here are some of the things I am looking forward to this month:

CHERRIES

Cherries are making their way to the market, and should be available for approximately a month. We usually see the Brooks variety cherry first which is a crisp, tart cherry. That will be followed by Bing cherries, Rainier and sour cherries among other varieties. I am partial to Bing cherries from Lagier Ranch -- Mr. Lagier brings them to the market when they're perfectly ripe and delicious. This year, I will be keeping an eye out for sour cherries, as they make for a delicious brandied fruit which can then be used throughout the year for cocktails and desserts.

POTATOES

A while back, I told you about new potatoes -- the beginning of the season potatoes that are spectacular in flavor and freshness. I'm happy to report that they are back and I spotted them at the Berkeley Farmers Market last week at the Full Belly Farm booth. They are expected at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market in the next month or so.

PEAS

Denise told you about making a pea soup this week, and I am looking forward to trying out that recipe. The fact of the matter is that my peas rarely make it past the shelling stage as I usually eat them raw or slightly steamed. But if you have the willpower, now is an excellent time to shell and freeze peas. My favorite place to purchase them is the Swanton Berry Farm booth that is in many local farmers markets.

STRAWBERRIES

Northern California is very lucky: our strawberries have an extremely long fruit season, and we will have them around for a while. Still, this is the perfect time to buy strawberries and freeze them if you can. If you have room, I suggest hulling the berries and freezing on a large cookie tray before storing in a freezer bag. I buy mine from Lucero Farm and from Yerena Farm.

ALMOND BUTTER

This is not really a seasonal product, but I just wanted to give a shout-out for Greg Massa's excellent Almond Butter. You may know Massa Organics farm for selling really delicious brown rice at many Bay Area markets. If you check his booth carefully, you will notice an almond butter that he has been producing for a few months. I am addicted to this almond butter, and highly recommend trying it. It's pricey, but if you eat almond butter as slowly as I do, you'll only be making the investment every few months.

What are you looking forward to at the market this month?

Watercress from Sausalito Springs

When you see a farmer or producer singlemindedly focused on one thing, almost always, that one thing turns out to be truly exceptional.

This is exactly the case of Sausalito Springs, a small family farm located in Sonoma County which has been growing high-quality organic watercress since 1988. Grown in fresh well water, their watercress is harvested tops only, triple washed, hydrocooled, and packed so that the sprigs continue to grow in the packaging.

I got my hands on a bag of these gorgeous greens and it looked so fresh I wanted to roll around and frolic in fields of it.

Eaten raw as a salad or in a sandwich, watercress has a surprisingly spicy bite to it. Blanched or sauteed, the spice mellows out a bit, but it still retains its fresh, clean flavor.

Since I had a big bag to play with, I decided to make a simple pureed soup that would allow the taste of the watercress to really shine.

Taking an immersion hand blender to my watercress soup

Borrowing the presentation from my dining-out experiences, I opted to serve the soup in double shot glasses as a fun starter. Served warm, this is a soothing and rich teaser. Served chilled, it's cool, refreshing, and just sings spring.

Watercress Soup Shots

Watercress Soup Shots

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients:
1 lb. watercress, cleaned
1 lb. russet potatoes, peeled and diced
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 leek, white part only, halved lengthwise, thoroughly washed and julienned
8 cups (64 oz.) chicken stock
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter
Whole milk plain yogurt for garnishing
Salt to taste

Preparation:
1. In a large pot, bring the chicken stock to a boil and add the diced potatoes; cook until softened, about 20 minutes.

2. Melt the butter in a large pan, add the onions and leeks, and sautee until softened and translucent. Season with a pinch of salt.

3. In a separate pot of boiling salted water, blanch the watercress for 30 seconds. Shock it in an ice bath to stop the cooking, drain, roughly chop it into small pieces, and set aside.

4. Add the onions, leeks, and watercress to the large pot of chicken stock. Simmer until all the vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes.

5. Using an immersion blender, or working in batches with a standing blender, puree the soup until smooth. Mix in the cream, and season with salt to taste.

6. This soup can be served hot or chilled. Before serving, garnish with a dollop of plain yogurt.