Stinging Nettle Soup
2015-05-19 08:16:38
Serves 5
Nourishing Wild Soup
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Cook Time
30 min
Ingredients
- Freshly picked Nettles - 1 carrier bag equivalent
- Olive Oil or Butter for frying
- 1 large Onion
- 4-6 cloves Garlic
- 5 medium Potatoes
- Vegetable Boullion
- 1 Lemon
- Sea Salt and Cracked Black Pepper
- Cream to serve
Instructions
- First bravely pick your bag of nettles - grasp them and pluck them embracing the weird tingling - or use gloves.. Choose young fresh green nettles, not those looking too tough and mean nor those in flower. Pick just the top tips of each plant.
- Rinse them well and remove any unfortunate bugs.
- Finely chop your onion and fry in a small amount of fat with a pinch of salt.
- Dice the potatoes into small cubes and add to the pan.
- Finley chop the garlic (as much or as little as you prefer) and add to the pan.
- Cover with hot vegetable stock and bring the pan to simmer - the smallness of the potatoes will decrease the cooking time.
- Once the spuds are soft add the whole load of netttles - no need to chop - and stir them in. The heat will kill their stinging ability and they soften quickly like spinach.
- Do not boil now, you need to keep the nutrients, but remove from heat and whizz with a hand blender. (Best to do this when the soup is still really thick) It can be left fairly chunky or a smooth green puree, as you like.
- Return to the heat and top up with a bit more veg stock to desired consistency (not too weak and runny though!).
- Add seasoning to taste.
- Serve with a squeeze of lemon and a swirl of cream or some parmesan shavings. Yummy Wild Goodness.
Notes
- Best not to pick nettles too close to roads or dog walking tracks for obvious reasons!
Wildhungry http://www.wildhungry.co.uk/