Nettle Soup

Well we are past the equinox and finally days are longer than nights and the sun is starting to have some real power in it, so Spring is definitely here.  While it brings good things (blossom, swallows and swifts, butterflies, longer days), it does mean that the weeds start to wake up as well, and I will soon lose part of the garden to goose grass if previous years are anything to go by.

I have wrought revenge on one weed (do it to them before they do it to you?) by eating it, and jolly good it was too!  I have tried making nettle soup before, but have found it comes out watery and rather uninspiring unless you are on a very serious diet or completely skint, but this time I ignored the advice of local cooks and did my own recipe and jolly good it was too.  So in the interests of helping people keep down but still maintain their nettle stocks (spraying is not the way forward as nettles are home to many nice butterflies when they are in egg and caterpillar form), I share my nettle soup with the world - or those bits that read blogs anyway.

Ingredients

• 1 or two medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
• The green bits of a leek or two you were going to throw away, but are still too good for the compost heap - at least a good heaped tablespoon
• 10 or 12 sorrel leaves, roughly de-ribbed (just the central rib - one set of strings too many otherwise)
• a full salad spinner bowl of nettle tops - the last 4 to 6 leaves
• stock - I used a chicken stock cube and the cooking water from the best bits of the leeks I cooked for another dish (leeks wrapped in best ham and baked in a goat's cheese sauce with crunch topping - yum)
• seasoning to taste

Method:

1. Put the potato cubes and the leek bits in a big saucepan with a knob of butter and a spoon of olive oil and heat gently to get them a bit cooked and coated with the fats so they don't stick to the pan
2. Gradually add handfuls of sorrel leaves and nettle tops and move them around the pan so they wilt in the oil - the sorrel will go a bit muddy coloured but the nettles will go a nice rich dark green
3. Add sufficient stock to only just cover the greens - add too much and you end up with washing up water in my opinion - and simmer until the potatoes are done
4. Whizz to get a nice smooth consistency and season to taste
5. To serve, pour in a bowl and add a swirl of cream - I had got to the end of the pot so I did Jackson Pollock cream which isn't so pretty - and serve with garlic croutons and crusty bread

It may turn your pee green but that wears off, just make sure you don't include too much other garden produce with your nettles (bugs, grass, other weeds, butterfly eggs) so wash your nettle tops carefully while wearing rubber gloves - for obvious reasons.

Here is our lunch today!

 

Comments

[Anne Donald]

Our nettles aren't yet big enough - but the wild garlic is just about ready to pick.