Nettle Picking and Two Nettle Recipes
We started picking nettles about 8 years ago and the years where we’ve not done it (new born and being 8 months pregnant) I have really missed it. It’s become a lovely way to welcome in the spring and while out walking and looking for the nettles you often find other signs of spring you may ordinarily have missed. On this walk we saw daffodils, blossom buds and heard more birds singing than we have done so far this year. It was a grey and windy day but the air was fresh and the promise of spring and new beginnings was in the air. The children were super happy to be out and I think they picked up on the feeling too as they lasted outside for nearly two hours with no issues. They came home muddy, red cheeked and tired, it was a good day.
When looking for nettles you want to pick the young ones as they are tender. I take gardening gloves with me (strongly recommend) and a bag for life and simply collect as we wonder. If you also have little people coming with you and little hands wanting to get involved and help I suggest taking extra gloves for them – I love to let them get involved when they can and this is a great way to teach them about what nettles are, explain that we don’t touch them without gloves because they can sting, as well as sharing the joys of foraging.
Not only do nettles taste delicious, they are also a great source of vitamin C and are free to collect. The two recipes we make the most are nettle soup (my husband’s favourite soup of the year) and nettle tea.
Note: Like spinach, when cooked, nettles reduce to about a quarter of their size.
Nettle soup
Ingredients:
- 500g nettles
- 2 large potatoes
- 1 big leek
- 1 tbs vegan butter
- 1 litre vegetable stock
- salt and pepper to taste (we love lots of pepper)
Method:
- Put the nettles in a colander and pour boiling water over them. Remove any that don’t look particularly nice.
- Cut your potatoes into bite-sized pieces (about 1 inch squares) and finely chop your leek.
- Fry the leek in the vegan butter until soft then add the potatoes and nettles.
- Stir for a few minutes until they are well combined and starting to cook.
- Add your vegetable stock, bring to the boil and then simmer for 12-15 minutes until the potatoes are soft.
- Remove from the heat and blitz with a hand-held blender, then return to the heat and season to taste. As mentioned above we like ours nice and peppery.
- Enjoy with some chunky fresh bread.
Nettle Tea
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup of fresh nettles
- 1 cup of water
- Sugar to sweeten (optional)
Method:
- Wash the nettles under a warm running tap before putting them in a pan and covering with a cup of water.
- Heat until almost boiling then turn down the hob and simmer for a few minutes.
- Strain, add the sugar if you are using it, and enjoy.
I also like to wash and dry some of my nettles to store for future teas. I use the microwave method shared my Martha from dryingallfoods.com and her method (and 3 others) can be found here.
I hope this inspires you to give nettle foraging a go and have a lovely spring walk at the same time.
Livvy and Summer
