Watercress Side Dish

Another super easy side dish (banchan) that's really nutritious as well as being yummy: watercress.

Ingredients:
1 bunch watercress, rinsed
1 teaspoon Korean hot pepper paste
1 scallion, chopped
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
2 cloves garlic, minced

Here's what watercress looks like: stalks with leaves on top - kind of like clovers. Just give them a good rinse before you start using them because they can be dirty or sandy and sometimes leaves detach and then go bad and stick to the good leaves. I just fill up a huge bowl with water and swish them around, drain and repeat a few more times until I'm satisfied that they're good and clean. If you've never eaten them, they have a slightly pepper taste when raw and get much more mild and almost sweet once they're cooked.

Boil some water in a pot and add in the watercress. Blanch them for just a second before draining them and then plunging them in an ice bath. Once the watercress is cool, squeeze the water out of them, much like you'd do with spinach.

Then, just mix all of the ingredients together and you're done!