Nettle soup

chrisvaldez

Heard the council grass cutter a few roads away this afternoon so seized the opportunity and ran out the back behind my garden with scissors, thick gloves and a shopping bag.

Used some potatoes I grew and some Tesco value veggie stock and an 'on the brink' onion.....end result....3-4 days worth of tasty nettle soup!

Poosmate

Yay! Well done! Can you post the recipe and how you made it please? I've never made soup of any description before.

Thanks

Poo

Ash_McCloud

Why do you have to wait to hear the Council grass cutters before you can go and cut some nettles down?

chrisvaldez

Because they always go past the back of my house and take out all of the foliage, so by the time they're done there's no nettles left!

Recipe is pretty simple, I dice the onion and potato up, and put a stock cube in with 1 litre of boiling water. Then I shallow fry the onion til it goes soft, then throw the onion, potato dicings and around a bowl full of nettle leaves (leaves only, not the stalks!) and simmer the lot for around 20 minutes.

Then when it's all looking suitably sludgy I cheat and use an electric whisk to break it all down and normally chuck a bit of creme fraiche/soured cream in!

Tastes a bit like spinach but nicer!

pennyshahin_2

I was thinking of doing the same thing myself , do you use all the leaves or only the top ones ?

foxgloves

Use the newest ones at the top or new nettles that have just come through as old nettles can have rather a laxative effect!

chrisvaldez

As per foxgloves, I generally use only the newer leaves (ie full, bright green looking ones as opposed to dark green and dry looking) mainly as I wouldn't want to eat any other soup with 'gone off' vegetables in it!

Incidentally I have eaten the older leaves in soup and didn't upset my tummy, but horses for courses!

Lotus-eater

If you miss the young nettles in Spring, get your shears out and cut a stand of them down, within a couple of weeks you should have lush young nettles to eat. Also works well if you are drowning them in the search for stinky nettle fertiliser.