Pick only the tips and first few pair of leaves of young green nettles in the spring for nettle soup. Beginners will prefer to wear gardening gloves and a pair of scissors, but there is some truth in the expression, “grasp the nettle”, if you take the stem firmly between your fingers just below the lowest leaves you wish to harvest, they sting less than you might expect, and this makes collection much easier and quicker.
Nettles are reputed to “clean the blood” in the spring. The young nettle tips used for soup appear in the spring when there are few fresh green vegetables that will grow in our gardens, April and May were traditionally known as the “hungry gap” so the humble nettle was no doubt a godsend to our ancestors who depended on seasonal produce and not imported greens.
Nettle soup is an excellent way to save money on food while eating well.
Use only the finest bouillon or stock powder or stock cubes, or use real bone stock in your nettle soup.
Ingredients
- Around a quart (2 pints) of stinging nettle tips and young leaves, gently pressed down
- 1 pint good quality stock or bouillon
- Unrefined sea salt such as Celtic sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Two handfuls of rolled oats or oatmeal
- A little milk
- One bay leaf
- Crème fraiche or soured cream (optional)
Method
- Wash your nettles carefully in fresh water and dry them a little.
- Add the nettles and bay leaf to the boiling stock and simmer for five minutes.
- Add the oats, a little unrefined sea salt, and black pepper to the pan, and mix well. If the mixture seems too thin then add a few more oats, remembering that the oats will thicken the mixture further as they cook.
- Simmer for a further five minutes. Remove the bay leaf.
- Remove from the heat and allow to cool a little.
- Either pour the soup into a food processer to liquidize, or blend the mixture in the pan using a small hand held blender, taking care to completely submerge the blades to avoid spraying your soup around the kitchen!
- Return the soup to the heat for a couple of minutes, adding further salt and pepper to taste, as well as a little milk.
Serve your nettle soup in rustic bowls with good wholemeal bread and butter. When the soup has cooled a little you may like to add a small spoonful of crème fraiche or soured cream to each bowl, this adds a lovely rich flavor to the soup, but it does also add extra calories. Without the crème fraiche or soured cream, nettle soup is a very low fat dish, containing plenty of fibre and so is good for slimmers who will appreciate the rich flavor of the nettles.
Readers may also be interested in Wild Food Salads.
 |
